Oct. 29, 2009
NORMAL, Ill. - The Illinois State men's and women's cross country teams are preparing for the 2009 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Cross Country Championships Saturday in Peoria, Ill. The event will be held at the Newman Golf Course with the men's 8K race set to begin at 10:30 a.m., with the women's 5K race to follow.
Earlier this week, the women's team was picked to finish second in the Valley, while the men's team was seeded third in the Pre-Championship Coaches Poll. Both the men's and the women's teams finished in third place at the 2008 Valley Championships.
In the past 27 years that the women's team has competed in the Valley, the last time the Redbirds brought home a conference championship was in 1989. ISU has won five championships, while Wichita State has the largest number of championships with nine. ISU and Missouri State are tied with the second most championships.
The last time the men won the conference title was in 2002. The Redbird men have won nine titles placing them in third place for the most titles behind Drake, who has 11 titles, and Southern Illinois, who has the most with 12 team titles.
The men's team will be led by senior Scott Krapf and junior Matt Mroczynski, who were named to the 2008 All-Valley team after finishing the race in the top-10.
"For the men, what we need is for Scott and Matt to run well, and they need to be looking to win an individual championship, which will be a tough battle up front," said head coach Jeff Bovee. "Scott and Matt are ready to go. The key for us as a team is to get junior Jon Roberts to sneak into the top-10 and get all-conference for our team. Also, we need to have a couple of the young guys come through strong. The young guys running well are going to be important for our team to try and win the team title."
The Redbird women will look towards their veteran leadership and junior Michelle Brunk, who was a member of the 2008 All-Valley team. With five juniors, one sophomore and two freshmen competing, the Redbirds hope to make a run for the conference team title.
"On the women's side, a big key for us will be juniors Kirsten Lang, Jess Husted, Sarah Glowacki and Brunk all running well like they did at the Illinois Intercollegiate and having a small gap between the fifth-place and 12th-place runners," said Bovee. "Our goal would be to get three women in the top-10 and pack in a couple others in the top-15. The key to our women's success is how high up are fifth runner can finish. That is going to be important. So, we are going to look for girls to step up for us to have a chance this week."
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