Oct. 2, 2010
Final Stats
Louisville, Ky. -
The Illinois State women's cross country team took seventh place out of 35 teams at the competitive Greater Louisville Classic Saturday in Louisville, Ky. The ISU women's team finished the Gold Division race with 267 points, while the men's team ended the Gold Division race with 722 points and in 32nd place.
The race was run at the Tom Sawyer State Park where the course consisted of flat land and dry conditions allowing runners to run at top times.
"The women had a strong race and were led by four runners in Aisha Praught, Jess Husted, Olivia Myers and Samantha Bluske, " said head cross country coach Jeff Bovee. "All of these women, except Husted, ran career-best times. We ran much stronger as a pack than we did at our last meet."
Praught was the first Redbird to cross the finish line in 42nd place followed by Husted in 43rd place. Praught and Husted ended the race with times of 17:54.27 and 17:54.40, respectively. Myers was close behind in 50th place after finishing the race in a time of 17:59.48. Bluske crossed the finish line in 58th place with a time of 18:05.98.
Freshman Kristen Zillmer cruised to 94th place in 18:30.06, which was a career-best time. Senior Kirsten Lang finished the race in 18:54.14 followed by freshman Kimberly Christensen, who ran the race in 18:54.23. Sophomore Brea Tinney (18:56.58) and freshmen Ruth Allen (19:47.16) and Shannon Nemetz (20:34.09) rounded out the Redbird roster for the 5K race.
In the women's Blue Division, freshman Megan Fry finished the race with a time of 19:37.38.
"It was a difficult day for the men's team as things got off to a bad start when our No. 2 through No. 5 runners went down early in the race," said Bovee. "They went down when the field bottlenecked and about 20 runners fell. I give our men credit for bouncing up quickly and regrouping. However, with a large field of runners and narrow passing lanes, they spent a lot of energy early in the race trying to establish themselves in the race. Nonetheless, they competed hard, but we have to work to improve meet-by-meet."
On the men's side, senior Matt Mroczynski was the top-Redbird runner across the finish line for the third-straight meet. The Pulaski, Wis., native finished the race in 24:37:42, which was a season-best time. Sophomore Blake Brooks finished the race with a time of 25:28.77, which was also a season best. Just behind Brooks was junior Jim Link, who ended the race in a time of 25:32.05.
Junior John Navarro finished his 8K run in 26:08.01, while sophomore Mat Smoody crossed the end line in 26:37.35. The 8K race was the first for Smoody in the 2010 season. With a time of 26:42.79, freshman Erik Stanton crossed the finish line followed by fellow freshman Matt Schacht finishing his 8K run in 27:21.32.
The Redbirds next meet will be Saturday Oct. 16 in Terre Haute, Ind., at the competitive NCAA Pre-Nationals.
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