The Titan Invite took place on Friday, October 7th. It was hosted by Illinois Wesleyan University in the flat but windy Maxwell Park located in Normal, Illinois. The men competed in an 8 km race, while the women competed in a 5 km race. Not all of the IXC men and women were able to compete, but both teams were still looking to do their best at the meet.
The IXC Women placed second overall as a team behind a tough Illinois Wesleyan pack. The IXC ladies scored 49 to Illinois Wesleyans 21, and ran a great race in the process. Natalie Todd (Jr.) led the ladies in with a time of 20:54.67 over the 5k course, placing 6th overall in the process. Despite going out a bit slower than was meant, Jess Mulcrone (Sr.) and Monica O”Connor (Fr.) were 8th and 9th overall, bringing in the top 3 women before the 10th place finisher, which is always a good sign. To round out the scoring 5, Michelle Turner (Fr.) and Paige Newman (Sr.) finished 11th and 15th, respectively. Although some of the times were not what the ladies were looking for, the way the ladies attacked the race and competed throughout was spectacular. Many of the women finished looking as if they had given it there all, and that”s all you can ask for from a cross country team. Way to get after it, ladies.
The IXC Men went off second, and they immediately packed up after the gun in hopes of taking down the wind and the individuals who chose to brave the wind alone throughout the race. Vigneshwar Karthikeyen (Jr.) and Adam Snyder (So.) led the team in together, taking 4th and 5th respectively overall. Evan White (So.), Andrew Gazdziak (Jr.), and Thomas Galpin (Grad.) rounded out the scoring 5 on the day. The times across the board were a bit less than spectacular, but that didn”t matter much. What mattered was that the Men won the overall team race with a score of 35 over Lincoln College”s 43! Great job, guys! But, looking at bit deeper into the results, another fantastic performance other than the winning of the team title took place. Brandon Finn (So.), a transfer student from South Africa, ran an awesome race and locked up a pretty big PR on a less than ideal day. More importantly, he raced throughout and had a huge kick to come in 55th place with a time of 31:48.33. In his first year of competitive running EVER, what he did was really impressive. Way to go, Brandon!
