Nov. 13, 2009
NORMAL, Ill. -
After a third and second place finish at the 2009 State Farm Missouri Valley Cross Country Championships, the Illinois State men's and women's cross country teams will head to Springfield, Mo., Saturday to compete in the NCAA Midwest Regional Championships at the Missouri State Cross Country Course.
The NCAA Midwest Regional Championship, hosted by Missouri State, will assemble 30 men's squads and 31 women's teams. The Midwest Region is comprised of nine states, representing NCAA Division I schools from Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota.
The Redbird men's and women's cross country teams enter Saturday's contest ranked No. 13 and 11, respectively, in the NCAA Division I Midwest Regional Rankings, as voted on by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).
Competing on Saturday for the men's team will be senior Scott Krapf, juniors Matt Mroczynski and Jon Roberts, along with freshmen Blake Brooks, Kevin Forde, Gerardo Perez and Mat Smoody.
"To be successful, we need Scott, Matt and Jon running to their potential like they have throughout the season," said head coach Jeff Bovee. "If they can be up front and score low points for us, that will give us more room to make errors on the back side of the lineup, which is mostly freshmen. We will need the other four guys to step up and be strong fourth and fifth spots. The regional is interesting because it's the only time during the season that the men run a 10K. We hope the men are able to make that transition."
On the women's side, junior Sarah Glowacki, Jess Husted, Gina Kapusta, Kirsten Lang and Olivia Myers, along with freshmen Samantha Bluske and Brea Tinney, will be running in Saturday's race.
"On the women's side, we are currently ranked 11th in region," said Bovee. "At the conference, we had several women run well in Kirsten, Samantha, Brea and Gina. Olivia Myers will be traveling with us, and I think she is ready to step in after getting her fitness back after suffering an injury. I think she is going to be able to contend for a top-five position on the team. As a group, we need Jess to run well and be in our top three for us to achieve our goal of finishing in the top-10 teams. I think if we run really well we have potential to be in the top-eight. We are going to need to run well and be aggressive in the race."
The men's 10K race is set to begin at noon and will be followed by the women's 6K race at 1:15 p.m.
GoRedbirds.com: Your online source for Illinois State Athletics, tickets, TRC gifts, multimedia, Redbird merchandise, photos and more.
