NORMAL, Ill. – Senior Tyler Morse captured his first collegiate first-place finish with his personal-best 8K time of 24:38.2. The Illinois State men's cross country team earned first place, which is the first time in school history for both men and women to win at home. The women's cross country team finished second overall.
"This has been the best our men have ever done," Illinois State Director of Track and Field/Cross Country Jeff Bovee said. "I am incredibly proud of them. At 5K we wanted to push for the last 3,000-meters and we executed that well. It's a great start for us and I think we have a lot of room for improvement. I am excited to see where we will go from here. Today, Tyler Morse showed that hard and work ethic can pay off. I am incredibly proud of Tyler being this is his first meet of the season."
On the men' side, Morse led the pack for most of the race. Jeff Bajema finished seventh place with a personal-best 8K time of 24:57.0. Dave Eckhart was the next to cross the finish line for the Redbirds. In his season debut he ran a time of 25:30.7 and placed 19th overall. Brendan Hoskins captured a personal-best 8K time of 25:35.9. Paul Steeno and Kyle Mattes picked up times of 25:37.7 and 25:40.7.
"The women competed well," Bovee said. "I am proud of them earning second place and beating two Big10 schools. They did not compete as a pack like they did at Iowa. Kelly and Ariel competing for the first time this season and both of them are coming off of injuries, so we didn't have the fire-power up front. However, our depth is tremendous and it was great today. Again, I am excited to see where we will go from here."
On the women's side, senior Kelly McShea cross the finish line in sixth-place with at time of 18:03.5. McShea led the pack for ISU throughout the entire race. Next to finish for the Redbirds was Haley Goers. She ran a time of 18:09.4. Erica Brown finish with a time of 18:25.3. Haley Verbeke, Ariel Michalek, Megan Krolak and Kimi Sanden finished next for ISU. Verbeke and Michalek picked up times of 18:33.4 and 18:35.7, while Krolak and Sanden finished with times of 18:36 and 18:36.7.
Both men's and women's are back in action on Sept. 25 as they travel to Peoria, Illinois for the Bradley Classic.
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