McLean County Times

The Illinois State University cross country teams participated in the seventh annual Gans Creek Classic in Columbia, Missouri, on Friday. The men's team finished eighth out of 26 teams in the Black Invite, while the women's team secured sixth place among 27 teams. Four runners from each squad placed within 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 led the Redbird men for a second consecutive year at this event, finishing 44th with a personal-best time of 24:23.1—over 14 seconds faster than his previous best. Junior Cayde de Waal posted his season-best to take 54th place. Sophomore Will Gelon and junior Kane Shields also set new personal records with times of 24:43.4 and 24:45.3 respectively.

On the women's side, freshman Pauline Schedler achieved a personal-best by improving her time by 20 seconds to finish 48th in her first cross country season. Junior Nora Brady and sophomore Colleen Zeibert followed closely behind in 51st and 52nd places; Zeibert also recorded a personal best of 21:46.6. Senior Maggie Reed was Illinois State's fourth scorer at 63rd place, while true freshmen Cameron Crump (22:22.0) and Brooke Zeibert (22:23.3) both set personal records as well.

"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," Bovee said. "As a middle distance runner, Pauline was really able to turn the gears on in the last stretch."

The Redbirds will have two weeks without competition before concluding their regular season at the Bradley Pink Invite on October 17.