McLean County Times

The Illinois State University cross country team will finish its regular season at the Bradley Pink Classic, held Friday at Newman Golf Course in Peoria, Illinois. The event is open to schools from NCAA Divisions I, II, III as well as NAIA and junior college programs. Both the men's and women's teams from Illinois State will compete in the Red Race, with scheduled start times of 1:30 p.m. for the men and 2:15 p.m. for the women. Live results will be available on shazam-racing.com, and ESPN+ will broadcast coverage starting at 11:55 a.m.

More than 20 schools are set to participate in each of the men's and women's Red Races. Among them are Central Florida, Xavier, Marquette, and several other Missouri Valley Conference institutions such as North Dakota State, Indiana State, Drake, Northern Iowa, Illinois-Chicago, and Valparaiso.

Illinois State head coach Jeff Bovee commented on his team's preparation: "We were able to hit a really solid training block and make some adjustments with the tempos of some of our workouts. We should be ready to improve our times once again."

Discussing the level of competition at the meet, Bovee said: "We're certainly going to try to be one of the top teams at this meet. There will be some really strong Missouri Valley competition and a lot of teams outside of the Valley. It's also nice that it's just down the road, and we don't have to travel far. We can sleep in our own beds and then go get ready to compete on a great course."

On the development within his women's squad this season, Bovee noted: "Our freshmen are building a ton of confidence. Pauline obviously went out and was our top finisher at Missouri, but Brooke and Cameron are also really starting to insert themselves and getting into that top-five conversation."

The women's lineup includes Sophia Baumert (Fr.), Nora Brady (Jr.), Cameron Crump (Fr.), Maggie Reed (Sr.), Vivianna Sanfilippo (5th Yr.), Pauline Schedler (Fr.), Astrid Van Breedam (So.), Brooke Zeibert (Fr.), and Colleen Zeibert (So.). The men's lineup features Julian Baker (So.), Luke Barham (So.), Will Gelon (So.), Blake Oleson (Jr.), Ethan Reynoso (Jr.), Logan Scott (Fr.), Kane Shields (Jr.), and Cayde de Waal (Jr.).