IOWA CITY, Iowa – Junior Jake Gillum and senior Phoebe Clowser led the way for Illinois State cross country as the men finished fourth and the women finished sixth at the Hawkeye Invitational on Friday evening at the Ashton Cross Country Course.
Gillum posted a top-15 finish in the men's 6K with a time of 18:46.1 as the Redbirds' top finisher on the men's side.
"I was really excited for Jake Gillum," said Director of Track & Field/Cross Country Jeff Bovee. "He looked the best he's every looked on grass."
The duo of freshman Tyler Klouda and sophomore Lucas Capistrant followed closely behind, finishing 18th and 20th, respectively. Klouda ran a time of 18:51.8 in the first collegiate race of his career, while Capistrant clocked in at 18:56.6.
"For Tyler Klouda to come out as a true freshman and look as good as he did today, I was really pleased with him," Bovee said. "(Lucas) Capistrant definitely did his homework over the summer and we had a nice group up front there."
Just shy of recording a top-25 finish, sophomore Matt Blanco was the next Redbird to finish, placing 26th with a time of 19:09.9. Rounding out the scoring for the Redbird men was sophomore Timothy Stevenson (33rd). Freshman Jacob Gray (35th) and freshman Tyler Polak (36th) followed closely behind as ISU's sixth and seventh finishers.
On the women's side, Clowser was the first Redbird to cross the finish line, clocking in at 15:13.3 to place 29th overall.
"I was really pleased with Phoebe (Clowser)," said Bovee. "She was the only one on the team that had ever run this course, so we had a lot of new people out here. I thought Phoebe did a good job of controlling the pace for the whole group."
The trio of sophomore Maddi Exline (36th), redshirt-junior Mariah Brodie (38th) and junior Hattie Plumb (40th) finished the women's 4K as a pack with all three finishing in the top-40.
Rounding out the scoring on the women's side was freshmen Paige Arseneau who notched a 41st-place finish in her collegiate debut. Freshmen Kylie Hagmann and Mackenzie Brownrigg both finished within the top-50, finishing 43rd and 49th in their first meet as Redbirds.
"We're going to want to be a lot tighter and keep everyone more together at our home meet next week, but I thought it was good start and without our full squad out there, I thought we represented really well," Bovee said.
UP NEXT
The Redbirds host the Illinois State Invite on Friday, Sept. 13 at the Weibring Golf Club. The first race is slated to begin at 5 p.m.
