Impressive showing for IXC at Augustana

IXC head coach Steve Krauklis can be hard to please, but even he was impressed with the Illinois Cross Country Club’s performance on Friday night at Augustana’s Brissman-Lundeen Invitational. The women had a dominant showing and the men’s team ran a savvy race. Veterans put up big PR’s, while several newcomers put on strong debuts.

“Both men and women exceeded expectations, top to bottom,” Krauk said. “I am extremely pleased and excited moving forward.”

Augustana is a meet full of strong competition, and the field ballooned this year as more teams got in on the action. Last year’s meet featured 39 teams in the men’s race and 35 in the women’s. This year, 50 teams competed in both races. The women of IXC took home sixth place, while the men took eleventh.

Women’s captain Megan Mocogni had an outstanding race to take seventh place in 22:19. She led the charge in a fantastic showing for the women with a time that ranks as the second-fastest 6K in club history. Beth McGreal also earned a top-15 finish in her first 6K of the season, taking 14th place in 22:50- good for the fifth-fastest 6K in club history. Augustana’s Saukie Golf Course is conducive to fast times, with flat terrain and great competition and the women certainly took advantage. Behind Mocogni and Beth was Heather Guetterman in her season debut. After a jaunt around Africa in the spring, this was Heather’s first race with the team since NIRCA Nationals last November. It looks like she picked up right where she left off, moving up the whole race for a great season debut.

After breaking her 5K PR by 33 seconds at EIU, Lauren “Loco LoCho” Choi had another strong race, breaking her 6K PR by 40 seconds and finishing as the team’s fourth runner. Emma Burkhardt rounded out the scoring five with a promising performance after dealing with an injury. Freshman Jill Monier had another solid showing, especially considering the circumstances. The women’s race was unexpectedly moved up 10 minutes and everyone did a great job handling the change. With a curtailed warm-up, Jill still ran 24:22 and was the team’s sixth finisher. Allison Gibson was seventh for the team.

In their second races of the season, Noel Brindise and Megan Frintner both dropped nearly 30 seconds off of their pace per mile. Some women also ran their first race ever with the team: freshman Sara Folliard ran 26:01 in her first collegiate competition and sophomore Audrey Vandercar ran 26:27 in her first race with the team. It was a strong showing top-to-bottom for the ladies as nearly double the number of women raced at Augustana, compared to EIU.

Jared Ripoli led the men’s team in Rock Island, taking 30th place and earning a coveted Brissman-Lundeen top-40 t-shirt. Jared ran 25:32, smashing his PR by 37 seconds. Early in the race, Jared had an unexpected companion in Michael Frintner. Frintner went out hard and when he started to settle down, Jared called him right back up. The result- a huge 55 second PR for Frintner, all while wearing middle school spikes digging into his heels.

The duo of Bradford “The Teacher” Coyle and David Choi ran savvy races as the team’s third and fourth finishers. The pair worked their way up nicely throughout the whole race. Brad, the elder statesman, finished in 26:09 and David’s finish is unknown, as his timing chip fell off during the race, as if he never even competed. Freshman Josh Feldman once again finished as the team’s fifth man, building on a strong performance at EIU. Willy “WEEM” Wolf and assistant coach Ryan Somerfield finished sixth and seventh for the team. Krauk was impressed with Weem’s intuition in his very first 8K.

Arturo Woodward-Montes ran a strong race in his IXC debut and Leonel “El León” Rodreguez had a solid first 8K with the team. Krauk said expect the pair to improve further as they gain confidence throughout the season. Justin “Shimeister” Shim made his collegiate racing premiere and finished like an “800 meter stud” according to Krauk. Tyler “T-Dix” Dixon had a strong and steady race. Arun Madhavan and Will Reyes also made their IXC debuts after a few weeks of grinding it out at practice.

Brissman-Lundeen marked the debut for many new members of IXC. Shout-out to Annaliese Schulz, Sara, Audrey, Anastasia Rodriguez, Sarah Garrow, Kendra Zwonitzer, and Morgan Cirvale. For the men, Arturo, Justin, John “is a Lyon” Lyons, Ciaran Lynch, Arun, and Will all raced for the first time with IXC.

It was a great day for the club in Rock Island, and special thanks to the friends and family who came out to cheer on the team at the meet. The club will toe the line again on October 10 in Kenosha, Wisconsin for UW-Parkside’s Lucian Rosa Invitational. It’s a short drive from Chicago, so we hope to see you there supporting IXC!