MADISON, Wis. - The Indiana State men's and women's cross country teams will head north this weekend to compete at the Pre-National Invitational in Wisconsin at Zimmer Championship Course.
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"The NCAA Pre-National meet will be the best meet in the entire nation this season up until the NCAA Championship," Associate Head Coach for Cross Country
Kyle Walsh said. "Many of our U.S.A. Olympians have raced in this meet before as collegians and we are excited to go to Madison and line up against the best in the country. Our focus will be on having our best team performance of the season and see where that stacks up among the 30 plus regionally ranked teams we will be competing against. The energy will be high and it will be important for us to keep our composure through the tough middle portions of the race."
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After a strong performance and third place finish at Notre Dame, the ISU women will be competing in the women's 6K white race at 11:45 a.m. ET against some of the nation's best such as third ranked New Mexico, fifth ranked Stanford, eighth ranked Wisconsin, No. 10 Michigan, No. 12 Furman, No. 16 Washington, No. 20 Utah State, No. 22 Notre Dame, No. 24 Yale and No. 28 Georgia.
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All five scorers for the women placed in the top-50 at the Joe Piane Invitational last time out. Redshirt junior
Brooke Moore led the ISU women and ran her best race of the season in the women's 5K, taking sixth overall by crossing the finish line at 17:33.03, which was also her best time since Oct. 29, 2016.
Alli Workman also made her way up to the front of the Sycamore scoring group, placing 21st with a personal-best time of 18:05.15. Freshman
Jocelyn Quiles was not far behind Workman, taking 23rd overall with also with a career-best time of 18:08.42.
Michaela Ward took the fourth scoring spot for the women, crossing the line in 26th place with a time of 18:18.60, while fifth-year senior
Jessi Conley was the fifth scorer for the women, placing 47th at 18:40.17.
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Following the women's race, the Sycamore men will take the course at 1:15 p.m. for the men's 8K white race. Much like the women, the men will face-off against some of top teams in the nation such as second ranked BYU, fourth ranked Portland, eighth ranked Syracuse, ninth ranked Purdue, No. 10 Air Force, No. 12 Washington, No. 17 Washington State and No. 21 IU.
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Seven Indiana State men placed in the top-50 at the Joe Piane Invitational in the five mile Gold Division Race.
Akis Medrano was the top finisher for the third consecutive race, winning the Men's 8K Gold Division Race with a time of 24:31.86, just about two seconds off of his personal-best.
Cam Trout ran the best race of his cross country career, taking 18th overall and clocking a time of 25:10.53. Freshman
Nick Yeend took the third scoring spot for the Sycamore men, placing 29th with a time of 25:26.15. Rounding out the top-five for the men were freshman
Cale Kilian and junior
Ryan Cash in 32nd and 36th with times of 25:28.55 and 25:35.41, respectively. Also placing in the top-50 were freshmen
Noah Hufnagel and
Ben Payton with times of 25:45.11 and 25:50.76.
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"Akis and Brooke will look to be the front runners for our teams and both are ready for the challenge. However, the story of the meet and where our performance will be dictated comes down to the strength of our two through five runners that have been very interchangeable on these teams," Walsh said.
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This is the first time since 1978 that Wisconsin will host the Pre-National Invitational, a yearly preview of the NCAA Championship course for the best men's and women's collegiate cross country runners in the nation.
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The races will be streamed live on
FloTrack's subscription service.
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Here is a look at the complete race schedule:
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Women's Races
Women's 6K Cardinal Race (seeded) - 11 a.m.
Women's 6K White Race (seeded) - 11:45 a.m.
Women's 6K Gray Race (unseeded) - 2:00 p.m.
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Men's Races
Men's 8K Cardinal Race (seeded) - 12:30 a.m.
Men's 8K White Race (seeded) - 1:15 p.m.
Men's 8K Gray Race (unseeded) - 2:45 p.m.
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"I'm extremely excited to see how we battle in such a tough environment as this well mark our last regular season competition leading into the Missouri Valley Conference Championship meet."
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For the latest information on the Sycamore Cross Country teams, make sure to check out
GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media including
Facebook and
Twitter.
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