NORMAL, Ill. — The Illinois State Cross Country team travels to Columbia, Mo., for the seventh-annual Gans Creek Classic on Sept. 26. The Redbird men and women will compete in the Black Invite at 8:15 and 10:30 a.m., respectively. Illinois State will also be represented in the men's open race at 11:15 a.m. and the women's open event at noon. The 2025 NCAA Cross Country Championships will be hosted by Mizzou at the Gans Creek Cross Country Course on Nov. 22.
THE FIELD
Over 25 collegiate teams are set to compete in each the men's and women's Black Invite, including Ohio State, UCLA and Nebraska from the Big Ten, Baylor, Texas Tech and Kansas from the Big 12 and fellow Missouri Valley Conference members Northern Iowa, Belmont and Drake. UNI competed at the Redbird Invite, where the men's squad placed fourth and the women finished runner-up.
HEAR FROM HEAD COACH JEFF BOVEE
On race expectations
"I'd like to see us running up near the front and position ourselves to be one of the top teams in the field. Again, we're focusing on execution on our packs. In training, there's been a lot more cohesiveness in that way, and we're hoping that it plays out this weekend. I think our fitness levels are increasing, so just knowing how that course runs, I would expect us to run faster than we did at the home meet."
On the field
"There's quite a few Valley teams in our race along with other solid teams from around the country. We definitely need to take advantage of this opportunity against some conference teams to establish where we're at against them head-to-head."
STARTING LINE – WOMEN
Sophia Baumert (Fr., Open) // Nora Brady (Jr.) // Cameron Crump (Fr.) // Maggie Reed (Sr.) // Vivianna Sanfilippo (5th Yr.) // Pauline Schedler (Fr.) // Astrid van Breedam (So.) // Brooke Zeibert (Fr.) // Colleen Zeibert (So.)
STARTING LINE – MEN
Julian Baker (So.) // Luke Barham (So.) // Quinn Davis (Fr.) // Will Gelon (So.) // Blake Oleson (Jr.) // Ethan Reynoso (Jr., Open) // Logan Scott (Fr., Open) // Kane Shields (Jr.) // Cayde De Waal (Jr.) // Josh Weeks (So.)
