TERRE HAUTE, Ind. ? The Indiana State men's cross country team ran against some of the best teams in the country and in the Great Lakes Region last Friday at the Notre Dame Invitational in South Bend, Ind. After a 19th place finish in the highly-competitive Blue Division race that saw the team defeat other regionally ranked teams, the Sycamores have moved up to 10th in the Great Lakes Region as announced by the U.S. Track & Field Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).
The Sycamores cracked the list last week at the No. 14 spot, but they out-raced fellow regionally ranked teams in Michigan State and Marquette at the Notre Dame Invitational to move up four spots in the latest rankings.
ISU had four runners finish the race in under 25 minutes against some of the best competition in the country and six runners set new season-best times. In addition, junior Eric Schulz (24:50), sophomore Michael Disher (24:56), junior Jared Messmann (24:59) and freshmen Jeremiah Vaughan (25:38) and Craig Padgett (26:07) all set new personal best times in their third meet of the season.
Indiana State men's head coach John McNichols was pleased with the move up in the rankings.
“I'm not really surprised at the move because there were several regionally ranked teams at the meet last weekend,” said McNichols. “We performed well enough to finish ahead of several of them which helped us move up. I'm very encouraged that we are ranked 10th at this point in the season and have yet to put together a complete race as team.”
The team will have its next chance to move up in the rankings after competing in the 2008 Pre-Nationals hosted by Indiana State on Oct. 18, 2008, at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course located at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center. With a strong performance there against some of the best collegiate teams in the country, McNichols believes the team could go a bit higher.
“We are just a little over halfway through the season time wise and we need to find a way to put it all together,” said McNichols. “I think this team believes they are a little bit better than 10th in the region, but now it's up to them to prove it at Pre-Nationals and the conference meet.”
