It’s always hard falling four points short. Yet, the Great Plains Regionals meet is simply a step along the way to our destination: Nationals.
“The score might not have turned out exactly as we were hoping, but because of the way NIRCA is constructed, we don’t exactly have to run our best at regionals.” Said Head Coach Richard Skogsberg.
The IXC women finished 2nd at today’s NIRCA Regional meet scoring 55 points behind Northwestern Club’s 51 point performance.
However, a series of strong races by our IXC women shows a glass half-full.
Vicky Dent is one of IXC’s rising stars. Last year at Regionals, she ran close to 26:30. Today, she ran a big PR of 25:03, finishing 3rd for the IXC women.
“I couldn”t have done it without having Anneliese, Julia, Erin, Anna, and Noel pushing me to do better on the workouts.” Said Dent, “Everyone else on the team performed really well too and I”m so excited for what”s to come at Nationals.”
Working together up front was sophomore Julia Schultz [23:33] and junior Anneliese Schulz [23:59], both medaling with top-10 finishes.
Joining our two front-runners in the ”A” race at Nationals will be Dent [25:03], Erin Kainrath [25:34], Noel Brindise [25:48], Riley Maloney [26:23], and Anna Piazza [26:32]
Brindise ran another top-seven finish today, displaying enormous improvements made over the course of the season. Brindise will be running the ‘A’ race this year after running the women’s ‘B’ race her freshman and sophomore years.
Yet another athlete making her ‘A’ race debut at Nationals will be Maloney, a sophomore. Maloney ran an intelligent race today, passing dozens of runners in the first kilometer and hanging on for a 26th place overall finish.
Maloney’s high school running career was hindered greatly by iron deficiency anemia. Now in her second year of college, she is seeing her dedication finally pay off and her anemia under control. “I am very happy with how everything has gone, and I know training has helped a lot with that,” Said Maloney in an online log.
Another standout performance was from Maggie Madden, who, with a time of 34:13, ran a full 2:30 faster than her previous 6k. “I’m looking forward to dropping even more time during Nationals with proper training, through Anneliese’s coaching, and smarter active rest.” Said Madden. Madden transferred to Illinois this semester from Harper College, and only began distance running a few years ago.
Gender Minority Captain Schulz said she was incredibly proud of the high turnout today, and she is looking forward to Nationals. “We still have three fantastic weeks lefts in our season…” said Schulz, “Regionals is important, but Nationals is where everything should be put on the line.”
The IXC women’s next race will be the NIRCA Cross Country Nationals on November 11th, at Forest Acres East Golf Course in East Lansing, Michigan.
Results: https://jmsresults.com/results/2017/ashton17.html