NORMAL, Ill. – Junior Jack Anstey claimed the title and redshirt-junior Grace Beattie finished second to lead the Redbirds to a fourth-place finish on the men's side and a third-place finish on the women's side at the Illinois State Invite on Friday evening at Weibring Golf Club.
In his 2019 season debut, Anstey ran a 8K time of 24:41.1 to win his first ever cross country race. The Newtown Toowoomba, Australia native ran a patient and mature race, breaking away in the last 400 meters to seal the victory.
"Jack was fantastic," said Director of Track & Field/Cross Country Jeff Bovee. "It's the first time he's ever had a cross country win and he's starting to figure out how to bring his track success over to the grass."
Freshman Tyler Klouda was the second Redbird to cross the finish line for the second-straight meet, running his first collegiate 8K in a time of 25:20.5 to finish 18th overall.
Junior Jake Gillum and sophomore Lucas Capistrant and Matt Blanco also ran solid races for the Redbirds, to complete the top-5 spots for Illinois State. Gillum posted a top-25 finish, running a 25:31.6 in the 8K for a nearly 30-second to place 23rd overall. Capistrant wasn't far behind, clocking in at 25:40.7 to cut a minute off of his previous 8K time and place 27th overall.
Blanco clocked in at 25:54.7 in the men's 8K to finish 36th overall and round out ISU's top-five finishers.
The Redbirds finished fourth out of eight teams on the men's side, topping MVC foes UNI and Southern Illinois, as well as DePaul and UIC.
"We need to definitely work on our top-five guys and closing the gap from one to five, but overall I was very pleased with how the guys started out," Bovee said. "With Kevin (Koski) and Kimathi (Johnson) redshirting (this season), we're going to need some other guys to fill that gap as the season goes on."
On the women's side, the Redbirds had three finishers in the top-10 led by a runner-up performance from Beattie who clocked in at a time of 17:40.7 in the 5K. Picking up where she left off last season, sophomore Rachel Hickey was the second Redbird to cross the finish line, breaking the 18-minute barrier for the first time at 17:45.3 and placing fourth overall.
Senior Kennidi Knoblock posted a 10th-place finish with a time of 18:05.0, shaving 30 seconds off of her previous best 5K time.
"Grace (Beattie) and our top-3 with Rachel (Hickey) and Kennidi (Knoblock), I was really happy to see how they got up there and battled," Bovee said. "All three of them had their best season debuts that they've ever had."
Seniors Annie Moore and Phoebe Clowser both posted top-30 finishes with Moore placing 20th with a time of 18:24.9 and Clowser finishing 27th with a time of 18:43.3 to complete the top-five for the Illinois State women.
The Redbird women finished third overall, falling to Loyola-Chicago and Marquette. ISU topped five other teams, including MVC competitors Southern Illinois and UNI.
"Our women have some big gaps right now," Bovee said. "For us to make a postseason push and do some things that I think we're capable of doing, we're going to need some of our younger, more inexperienced athletes to really make some big progress. I think they're very capable of that, but we're going to need to take advantage of every week that we have."
UP NEXT
The Redbirds travel to Columbia, Missouri to race at Mizzou on Friday, September 27. The first race is slated to begin at 6 p.m.
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