The Illinois Cross Country Club is headed to NIRCA Nationals in East Lansing, Mich. After winning the Great Plains Regional on both the men”s and women”s side, the club is ready for the postseason finale. The men and women will look to improve on fifth and fourth place finishes last year. The team is poised for success in all four of the day”s races.
In the men”s A race, Evan White and Greg Netols should lead the charge. Emma Grimes and Megan Mocogni will get another chance to face off against Regional champ Cara Donohue in the women”s A race. In the men”s and women”s B race, the team will show off its excellent depth.
It”s been a great season for the boys of Lake Zurich. Adam Cobert had the best race of his career at Regionals to be the team”s second finisher. He”s ready to do even better in East Lansing. Jared Ripoli has hadl a great season and has improved all year. He took the final All-Regional medal two weeks ago. Freshmen Brian Griffin and Austin Kuehr have had strong debut campaigns for the club. Austin is coming back from injury and both are ready for their first national meet.
It”s also been a year of freshman phenoms. Nick Bushelle has been a top 7 mainstay all year. Nick will be the second freshman to run in the A race for the team after Jared last year. Michael Frintner should be at the front of the pack in the B race after a great debut season.
The women have also relied on freshman in the top 7. Erin McKee has been a scorer all year and Lexy Rudofski has also had a great season.
It will also be the final cross country meet for the team”s seniors, and many are set up to go out with a bang. Monica O”Connor is fully recovered from an early season ankle injury. Thea Cudnowski has been a model of consistency this year and is ready to roll at Nationals. For the men, super senior Henry Wolf will look for a top finish in the B race. John Hopkins and Kevin Kibler raced last week to qualify for Nationals and finish their careers in East Lansing. Joe Zeller, fresh from organizing an excellent Regional meet, is ready to run well at Nationals with his dad in tow.
The action kicks off at 10:30 tomorrow morning with the men”s B race. It”ll be cold in East Lansing, but it”s a fast course and the club has put in the work required to run well. Look for updates from NIRCA and the club tomorrow morning.
