NORMAL, Ill. – Illinois State cross country will host the seventh-annual Illinois State Invite on Friday, Sept. 13 at Weibring Golf Course. The women's 5K is slated to begin at 5 p.m. with the men's 8K to follow at 5:45 p.m.
In their only home race of the year, the Redbirds will host nine different schools, including three MVC foes with Loyola, Southern Illinois and UNI traveling to Normal.
The ISU women will compete against DePaul, Illinois-Chicago, Loyola, Marquette, UNI, Northwestern, Quincy and Southern Illinois, while the Redbird men will race against DePaul, Illinois-Chicago, Loyola, Marquette, North Central, UNI and Southern Illinois.
At last year's Illinois State Invite, the men took home the title behind personal-best performances from Kevin Koski, Cody Baele and Jack Anstey.
Anstey will make his 2019 season debut at the Redbirds' home meet and looks to build off of a successful 2019 track & field season. The rising junior is one of two Redbirds who finished in the top-20 at the 2018 Illinois State Invite. With his sixth-place finish, Anstey was joined by Lucas Capistrant who finished 17th at Illinois State's home meet last season.
The Redbird men are coming off a fourth-place team finish at the Hawkeye Invitational led by junior Jake Gillum who finished 15th with a personal-best 6K time of 18:46.1. Freshman Tyler Klouda and Capistrant also posted top-20 performances with Klouda finishing 18th with a time of 18:51.8 in his collegiate debut. Capistrant, a sophomore, was the third finisher for the Redbirds, placing 20th with a personal-best 6K time of 18:56.6.
Illinois State's women's team finished third at last season's home meet and return four of their top-5 finishers from a year ago. Rachel Hickey was the top-finisher for the Redbirds at last year's Illinois State Invite, placing 10th with a time of 18:26.50 in the 5K. Hickey's top-10 performance was followed by Kennidi Knoblock with a 16th-place finish overall, Phoebe Clowser with a 20th-place finish and Annie Moore with a 22nd-place finish at the Redbirds' 2018 home meet.
The ISU women finished sixth at last weekend's Hawkeye Invitational led by senior Clowser, who finished 29th overall with a personal-best 4K time of 15:13.3. Sophomore Maddi Exline and seniors Mariah Brodie and Hattie Plumb were the next Redbirds to cross the finish line, finishing 36th, 38th and 40th, respectively.
Results from the Illinois State Invite are available here.
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