Sept. 28, 2007
Results
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -
Sophomore Jordan Anderson notched his first top-finish for the Illinois State men's cross country team as he placed seventh overall with a time of 25:06 in the men's Gold Division five-mile race. On the women's side, for a third-straight race senior Suzy Turner was the top-finisher for the Illinois State women's cross country team running the women's Gold Division 5K in 18:22 (17th) at the 52nd annual Notre Dame Invitational, hosted by Notre Dame and held at the ninth hole of the Notre Dame Golf Course Friday afternoon.
The Illinois State men accomplished their pre-race goal of finishing in the top-three as they placed third out of 25 teams. Grand Valley State, a Division II school ranked No. 4 nationally was the top finisher and Calvin College a Division III school ranked No. 1 placed second.
Head coach Jeff Bovee was pleased with the men's performance, but knows that the Redbirds have a ways to go before they are ready for the conference meet.
"I thought our first four finishers did a really good job," said Bovee. "I think Jordan Anderson had one of his best running performances as a Redbird. He really stepped it up and ran a great race.
"I think that we also saw some things today that we need to improve on. We almost had a one minute time gap in between our fourth and fifth runners; we need to find a way to bridge the gap between our front and back runners."
The Redbird men's performance was keyed by Anderson, freshman Matt Mroczynski, junior Mike Richardson and sophomore Scott Krapf. Mroczynski finished a few seconds behind Anderson in 8th place (25:08) and Richardson ran a season-best 25:20 for a 14th-place finish. Krapf, clocked in at 25:30, earning a 21st-place finish and freshman Jon Roberts was the fifth Redbird to finish with a time of 26:28 (81st).
Freshmen John Navarro (26:37), Luke Ryan (26:48), Devon Kelly (26:48) and junior Brian Syring (27:24) rounded out the men's finishers.
The Redbird women placed seventh out of 27 teams, topping three other Missouri Valley Conference teams. Turner, sophomore Kim Ebbesen (18:34), junior Kathleen Thompson (18:41); freshmen Sarah Glowacki (18:58) and Gina Kapusta (19:03) were the point scorers, placing 17th, 30th, 41st, 63rd, 74th, respectively, out of 214 runners.
Rounding out lineup for the women's performances were Jess Husted (19:11), Natalie Scatena (19:13), Stacey Turilli (19:26) and Kirsten Lang (19:35).
Bovee feels that the women's team competed hard, but was not able to get a good start.
"We didn't have as good of a meet as we had hoped for, but it was not a bad day," said Bovee. "We finished ahead of all the other Valley teams, but struggled getting into the top-30 in the first mile. I am comfortable with where the women are and I think that we are really going to get better within the next couple of weeks."
The top-10 finishers in the women's race were Grand Valley State (1st), Liberty University (2nd), Santa Clara University (3rd), Calvin College (4th), Ball State (5th), Northwestern(6th), Illinois State (7th), Southern Illinois(8th), Notre Dame(9th) and Windsor(10th).
The Redbird cross country team will be back in action in two weeks (Oct. 10) at the Bradley Classic in Peoria, Ill.
