STILLWATER, Okla. — The Illinois State cross country team closed out the 2025 season at the NCAA Midwest Regional on Friday morning. The women earned 12th in the 6k race with 382 points, finishing higher than Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Kansas State. The 12th-place finish is the highest for the women since 2015 when they took 11th. The Redbird men placed 17th in the 10k with 444 points.
Four of the Redbird women's five point-scorers finished in the top 100. Junior Nora Brady led the Redbird women in 46th in her first Regional appearance. Senior Maggie Reed followed in 56th, marking her career-best finish at Regionals.
"Maggie had her best race of the year, and Nora's been consistent and a great leader for us all year long," said head coach Jeff Bovee.
Freshman Pauline Schedler took 67th in her Regional debut. Sophomores Astrid Van Breedam and Colleen Zeibert rounded out the scoring five for the Redbirds in 89th and 131st place.
"Really proud of the women today," said Bovee. "We've been telling them all year that if they put it all together, they're a much better team than on paper. They collectively had their best race of the year, no doubt about it. They put themselves in a good spot early and gave themselves room to finish strong."
Junior Blake Oleson led the Redbird men and tallied his career-best finish at Regionals in 63rd. Twenty seconds later, junior Cayde de Waal crossed the finish line in 87th in his Regional debut. Sophomore Will Gelon and junior Kane Shields finished back-to-back in 91st and 92nd place. Freshman Logan Scott was the final point-scorer for ISU, taking 111th in his first Regional appearance.
"Julian Baker had a rough day today, but some of the other guys had their best races of the season," said Bovee. "Blake had a phenomenal effort and improved his place greatly from last year. Cayde, Kane and Will stayed together and did well. Also, for Logan, a freshman, to come out and be our fifth scorer on one of the hardest terrains in the NCAA when he was just running a 5k in high school was great to see."
Reflecting on the season, Bovee is proud of the progress the Redbirds made throughout the last few months, and he is excited for the future of the program.
"We've got a really young team," said Bovee. "We have all of our men back. We have all of our scoring women back except for Maggie, who is a senior. The buy-in is there. The culture is where we want it. The future is bright."
WOMEN'S 6K RESULTS- 12th Place (382 points)
46. Nora Brady, 21:38.5 // 56. Maggie Reed, 21:45.4 // 67. Pauline Schedler, 21:54.7 // 89. Astrid Van Breedam, 22:15.6 // 131. Colleen Zeibert, 22:46.6 // 143. Cameron Crump, 22:52.4 // 153. Viviana Sanfilippo, 23:04.1
MEN'S 10K RESULTS- 17th Place (444 points)
63. Blake Oleson, 32:23.7 // 87. Cayde de Waal, 32:44.1 // 91. Will Gelon, 32:52.0 // 92. Kane Shields, 32:53.1 // 111. Logan Scott, 33:10.4 (PR) // 138. Julian Baker, 33:49.6 // 173. Luke Barham, 34:44.6
