PEORIA, Ill. ? The Indiana State women's cross country team headed to Peoria on Friday for what turned out to be a preview of the Missouri Valley Conference meet in two weeks, as the Sycamores finished in seventh place overall at the fourth annual Bradley Classic at Newman Golf Course.
A total of seven Valley teams participated in the race, which gave each team a look at their competition two weeks prior to the conference championship. However, it was Big 12 Conference member Missouri (49) who took the team title in the women's 6k race, just nine points ahead of Wichita State (58) in second place. Big 10 Conference member Northwestern (141) finished in third place, ahead of five consecutive Valley squads in Illinois State (142), Northern Iowa (189), Southern Illinois (198), Indiana State (215) and Drake (219).
Saint Louis (226) and DePaul (227) finished in ninth and tenth places, respectively to round out the top ten. Western Illinois (315), Iowa State (323), Southeast Missouri (323), Bradley (336), Eastern Illinois (377), Illinois-Chicago (421) and Wisconsin-Green Bay (520) rounded out the rest of the field.
ISU women's head coach John Gartland thought his team's effort was improved from previous races.
“I felt we had a good effort in the race today,” said Gartland. “Unfortunately, we just came up a bit short against some good teams. With so many conference teams in this race, it was good to see how we stack up against them heading into the championship in two weeks.”
Sophomore and Terre Haute native Kayla Alexander was the top finisher for the Sycamores, as she finished in 20th overall with a time of 21:58. Junior Heather Stembridge was the next-highest finisher in 37th place with a time of 22:44. Senior Karla Negron (22:34) and sophomore Adriane Wunderlich (22:51) were next in 44th and 55th places, respectively while sophomore Emily Pugh rounded out the scoring in 59th place with a time of 22:57.
“I think we ran much better today than in our last couple of races,” said Gartland. “Our two through five runners made significant improvements and several of them turned in personal-best times in the 6k race. I just hope we continue to keep improving over the next two weeks and head into the conference meet very prepared.”
