WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. ? It was a battle to see who the best cross country teams in the state of Indiana are on Friday, as over 30 men's and women's team faced off at the Indiana Intercollegiate hosted by Purdue. The Indiana State men's team overcame a tough Indiana squad to prove they were the best and won their third-consecutive team title at the event in the 8k race, while the women's team raced to a fifth-place finish in the 5k race at the Purdue Varsity Cross Country Course.
ISU (47), who entered the race as the No. 10 ranked team in the Great Lakes Region, edged out Indiana (55), the No. 8 ranked team in the region, by eight points to finish first in the race out of 23 teams. Purdue placed third with 136, Southern Indiana came in fourth with 138 and Butler, who is the No. 4 ranked team in the region, rounded out the top five with 186. Missouri Valley Conference foe Evansville finished in 14th place (361), while fellow Terre Haute school Rose-Hulman finished in 17th (428).
Sophomore Randy Placencia paved the way for the men's team victory, placing third out of 194 runners with a time of 25:00.07 behind Kyle Jordan of Indiana and Paul Jellema of Southern Indiana. Sophomore Scott Keeney ran to a ninth-place finish with a time of 25:24.12, just ahead of teammate Eric Schulz in 10th with a time of 15:24.54. Also figuring into the scoring for the Sycamores were freshman Michael Disher in 12th place (25:31.04) and reigning Missouri Valley Conference Male Cross Country Athlete of the Week Scott Koressel in 13th place (25:31.33).
“It was a great race and really a matter of strong team racing,” said men's head coach John McNichols. “It was really nice to have Randy back in the lineup and he ran to a strong third-place finish. Then, our fifth-place man was just 30 seconds behind and that's the kind of gap we have to have as we progress through the season, if not get it closer. That really helped us against Indiana who was very strong, but their fifth runner was a bit behind the pack. With the win, it gives us three in a row at the meet and the competition in the state only continues to get better every year.”
“We have such a young team, but we are all racing like we've been here for three or four years,” said Placencia. “To me, there's nothing but good things ahead of us. We are only going to continue to get better as we train and compete together and I just hope I can continue to keep running well.”
The Indiana State women finished in fifth place overall (130) out of 20 teams, while Purdue ran to the team title with a total of 49 points. The Boilermakers finished 25 points ahead of second place Ball State (74), followed by Indiana in third place (120) and DePauw (121) in fourth place to wrap up the top five. Other notable finishers were Butler in 7th (234), Evansville in 10th (240) and IUPUI in 12th (308).
Sophomore Kayla Alexander finished in fourth place out of 163 runners with a personal-best time of 17:54.52 to lead the Sycamores in the race. Senior Karla Negron was the next ISU runner to finish, placing 16th with a time of 18:39.51 and junior Heather Stembridge also ran well as she finished 27th with a time of 18:55.89. Freshman Allison Malone (19:11.03) and Adriane Wunderlich (19:22.08) wrapped up the scoring for the Sycamores in 38th and 45th, respectively.
“As with most meets, there were good things and bad things today,” said women's head coach John Gartland. “The bad thing is that this finish is the lowest by our team in an intercollegiate meet in 20 years, as we had never finished lower than fourth place in the past. Our problem today is that we spread out a little too much, but I think we will be a much better team six weeks from now when we run in the conference meet.”
“But, on the positive side it was a great race for Kayla who finished in fourth overall,” continued Gartland. “She dropped her personal best by almost 30 seconds and we had really good performances by several other runners. Karla is also having an outstanding season so far and Heather did a great job, as she continues her comeback from surgery.”
“The start of the race was very chaotic and I almost had to take a diagonal line across the course to get in good position,” said Alexander, a Terre Haute native. “Once I got there I just tried to stay strong and hold my line for the rest of the race. The course was pretty tough with a lot of hills, but surprisingly I ran to a new personal best and was really happy with the result.”
In other action, former ISU standout Sean Bowman, who still has one year of eligibility left in indoor and outdoor track, finished first in 25:40.78 ahead of several other unattached runners. Keith Solverson was second in 26:08.91 and Justin Stadt was third in 26:23.05. The top collegiate runner was Indiana's Tom Martin, who finished fifth in 26:47.15.
Indiana State will take a week off before returning to action on Friday, September 29, at the Notre Dame Invitational in South Bend, Ind. Race time is set for 2 p.m. EST.
