COLUMBIA, Mo. — The Illinois State Cross Country team competed in the seventh-annual Gans Creek Classic on Friday morning. The men's squad took eighth in the Black Invite among 26 teams, while the women earned sixth out of 27 teams. Both squads had four runners finish in the top 100.
"Overall, it was a solid day. For both genders we were shooting to finish top five, so we nearly reached those goals," said Illinois State head coach Jeff Bovee.
Sophomore Julian Baker, the highest-finishing returner from last year's Gans Creek Classic, led the Redbird men once again this year. He crossed the finish line 44th with a time of 24:23.1, a personal-best by over 14 seconds. Junior Cayde de Waal posted a season-best time to finish 54th. Sophomore Will Gelon was the next Redbird to cross the finish line, setting a personal-best by over 30 seconds with a time of 24:43.4. Junior Kane Shields also set a personal-best mark of 24:45.3.
Freshman Pauline Schedler, who had no experience running cross country before this season, set a personal-best time (21:44) by 20 seconds to finish 48th. Junior Nora Brady finished 51st, and sophomore Colleen Zeibert took 52nd with a personal-best mark of 21:46.6. Senior Maggie Reed was Illinois State's fourth scorer in 63rd place. True freshmen Cameron Crump (22:22.0) and Brooke Zeibert (22:23.3) also set personal-best times.
"Execution wise for the women, we've talked about running in those packs, and they executed so much better today than at the home meet. That's why there was a smaller gap between our first and fourth finishers," said Bovee. "As a middle distance runner, Pauline was really able to turn the gears on in the last stretch."
MEN'S BLACK INVITE 8K RESULTS – 8th Place (285 points)
44. Julian Baker, 24:23.1 // 54. Cayde de Waal, 24:26.6 // 84. Will Gelon, 24:43.4 // 89. Kane Shields, 24:45.3 // 156. Luke Barham, 25:13.2 // 181. Josh Weeks, 25:29.7 // 221. Quinn Davis, 26:15.4 // 243. Blake Oleson, 26:59.9
WOMEN'S BLACK INVITE 6K RESULTS – 6th Place (220 points)
48. Pauline Schedler, (21:44.0) // 51. Nora Brady, 21:46.0 // 52. Colleen Zeibert, 21:46.6 // 63. Maggie Reed, 21:54.3 // 106. Cameron Crump, 22:22.0 // 108. Brooke Zeibert, 22:23.3 // 123. Astrid Van Breedam, 22:33.1 // 169. Viviana Sanfilippo, 23:21.9
MEN'S OPEN 8K RESULTS
55. Logan Scott, 26:23.7
WOMEN'S OPEN 6K RESULTS
70. Sophia Baumert, 23:52.7
UP NEXT
The Redbirds have two weeks off of competition before closing out the regular season at the Bradley Pink Invite on Oct. 17.
