Sept. 26, 2008
NORMAL, Ill. -
After finishing second at its home meet last Friday at the Illinois Intercollegiate Cross Country Championships (Sept. 19), Illinois State head cross country coach Jeff Bovee will take his men's and women's squads to compete at the Brissman-Ludeen Invitational, hosted by Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill., on the Saukie Golf Course Saturday. The men's 8K race is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. and will be followed by the women's 6K at 4:45 p.m.
The Redbirds will be traveling with a limited number of men's and women's runners to the meet, since the rest of the team will be running at the Notre Dame Invitational (Oct. 3), a week from today.
"This meet was scheduled so that all of our athletes could get a chance to compete," said Bovee. "We are still trying to find our varsity athletes and Notre Dame has limited entries. Some of the runners that will be competing this weekend have an opportunity to run varsity at the conference and regional meets."
On the women's side, freshmen Emily Gallup, Hannah Hogan, Jil Kerkman, Ashley Salzman, Caitlin Bull; and sophomores Lisa Devereux and Jenny Kraakevik, will be racing.
"Our women's team will be very strong because of our depth," said Bovee. "I think the women that we are taking could finish in the top-five. We are taking five freshmen that have never run a 6K before; however, I think that the transition for them will be relatively seamless."
The men will not be taking enough runners to field a team, but will look for strong individual performances from sophomore Nick Geyer, seniors Ryan Lay and Brian Syring, and freshman Drew Isbell.
"Even though the guys will not score as a team, I hope that they will be able to run as a pack for the first part of the race," said Bovee. "We just want those guys to go in there and give their best effort and gain some more experience."
A total of 37 teams will toe the starting line in both races. Included in the field are the following schools: Ashford, Augustana College, Aurora, Carl Sandburg, Carthage, Cornell, Culver-Stockton, Des Moines Area College, Ellsworth, Elmhurst, Eureka, Greenville, Grinnell, Harper, Illinois Central College, Illinois State, Indian Hills, Iowa Central, Lincoln College, Loras, Maryville, Monmouth, Mt. Mercy, North Iowa Area College, Olivet Nazarene, Principia, Rockford, Simpson, Southwestern Community, Spalding, St. Xavier, Truman State, Wisconsin-Parkside, Washington, Webster, Westminster and William Penn.
