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Mark Donohue and Emma Grimes were the top Illinois finishers for the men and women respectively, this weekend at the Lucian Rosa Invitational, hosted by the University of Wisconsin at Parkside.

Mark Donohue”s time of 26:21.4 was good enough for 39th place, at the hilly 8K course.  Freshman Jared Ripoli was close behind, running 26:26.4 for 48th place, while Eric De Guevara ran 26:38.1 to finish 59th.   Rounding out the scoring five were Matt Birkel in 77th with a time of 26:48.7 and Evan White in 83rd with a time of 26:59.7.  Meanwhile, Greg Netols made his return into the top 7, running 27:58.4, to continue his comeback from injury.

Emma Grimes finished 70th over all, in a time of 19:18.6, the third fastest 5K time in club history.  Megan Mocogni finished 2nd for the team, running an outstanding race to finish 83rd, setting the fourth fastest 5K time in club history at 19:25.4.  She was followed by Beth McGreal (100th, 19:37.4), Megan McGreal (107th, 19:42.1), and Michelle Turner (136th, 20:05.0).

The Illinois Cross Country club team will host the NIRCA Midwest Regional on November 2nd, and hope to defend their home turf.

Results

The Illinois Cross Country Club had strong performances Friday (Oct. 4) evening, sending partial squads to compete at the Illinois Wesleyan University Titan Invitational.

On the women”s side, Hannah Smith was the top IXC club runner with a time of 21:17.0 to finish 16th over all on the 5K course, followed by Tiffany Lam in 17th place with a time of 21:21.3.  Paige Oboikovitz and Emma Burkhardt took 19th and 20th place with times of 21:39.5 and 21:41.3 respectively, while Hannah Behle rounded out the scoring five, running 21:58.9 for 22nd.

Nathan Smith was the first Illinois finisher, navigating the 8K course in a time of 28:04.2, finishing 6th over all.  The next four Illinois runners finished less then five seconds apart, taking 13th place through 16th place.  Greg Netols led the pack with a time of 28:54.3, followed by David Choi (28:58.1), Dakota Morales (28:58.5), and Sean Bruyere (28:58.8).

The Illinois Cross Country Club will field full squads this Saturday (10/12) at the Lucian Rose Invitational, hosted by the University of Wisconsin at Parkside in Somers, WI.

Full Results

This past weekend, the University of Illinois Cross Country team traveled to Rock Island, IL to participate in the Brissman-Lundeen Invitational, hosted by Augustana College.  The men’s team finish 6^th out of 33 teams and the women’s team finished 9^th out of 33 teams.

Jim Riddle led the men’s team, finishing 8^th in a time of 25:32.9.  Jared Ripoli continued to build on an outstanding freshman year, running 26:09.4 to finish 28^th, while sophomore Eric De Guevara ran 26:14.6, finishing 36^th.  Rounding out the top five were seniors Evan White (45^th, 26:26.3) and Matt Birkel (59^th, 26:35.2).

On the women’s side, Megan McGreal was the first Illini finisher, navigating the 6K course in a time of 23:40.3, to finish 35^th.  Senior Emma Grimes was close behind with a time of 24:01.2, good enough for 45^th.  Seniors Beth McGreal and Michelle Turner finished 72^nd (24:33.5) and 84^th (24:40.8) respectively, while freshman Tiffany Lam made her top seven debut, running 24:29.1, taking 95^th place, and placing 5^th for the team.  Emma Burkhardt (124^th, 25:19.6) was the second new addition to the women’s top seven.

This Friday, the Illinois Cross Country team will send a partial squad on both the men and women’s sides to compete at the Illinois Wesleyan Titan Invitational at Maxwell Park in Normal, IL, while the remainder of the squad will compete at the Lucian Rosa Invitational hosted by the University of Wisconsin at Parkside on October 12^th.

Full Results

Despite hot and humid conditions, the Illinois Club Cross Country team had many impressive performances in both the men”s and women”s races at the Eastern Illinois University Walt Crawford Invitational, this past Friday.

On the men”s side, Joe Zeller ran a 50 second personal record to finish as the team”s first runner, placing 19th over all in a time of 26:42.44.  The remainder of the scoring runners consisted of top freshman Jared Ripoli (23rd, 26:52.95), sophomore Eric De Guevara (24th, 26:53.64), and seniors Matt Birkel (25th, 26:54.23) and Evan White (30th, 27:05.52).  Other outstanding performances included strong 8k debuts by Jack Morrissey, Michael Giberson, and many other club newcomers, and a minute PR by none other than Kevin Hearne.

For the women, Kelsey Kilrea opened her season with a time of 19:31.71 for the 5-kilometer race, good enough for 29th over all.  Returning runners Michelle Turner (46th, 20:06.73), Megan McGreal (47th, 20:07.30), Emma Grimes (52nd, 20:13.58), and Jo Dibuz (20:18.38) rounded out the scoring 5.  Hannah Smith (70th, 21:05.48) was the top freshman finisher for the team, as the women had a total of 12 runners below 22 minutes.

There were too many performances to highlight!  The Illinois Cross Country Club team returns to action on September 27th at the Brissman-Lundeen Invitational.

Full Results

The Illinois Cross Country Men and Women”s teams opened the season at the Illini Challenge on August 30.  The men were led to a second place team finish by Brendan McDonnell, who finished 3rd over in a time of 19:22.  The women finished 2nd with a total team score of 50 points.

Men’s Results
Women’s Results

Now that we”ve survived the initial rush of new members, it”s time to start figuring out the logistics of the season!  First things first, FORMS!!! (This includes returning members as well.)

For ANYONE who plans on traveling with the team this season, you must fill out the IXC: Emergency Contact and Medical Info Form.

If you plan on racing at the EIU Panther Open on Friday, September 6th, you must fill out the EIU Travel Form ASAP!!  Make sure that you have confirmed with Mark whether or not you will be racing. Women race at 4:45 and men race at 5:30. We will probably be leaving around 2:15 so take care of any class conflicts NOW.   (NOTE: In the future, you will have to check your email or the Race Schedule tab to find the travel forms).

Finally, if you have a vehicle on campus that you are willing to drive to meets please fill out the Driver Survey Form. Even if you have filled out the form for past seasons please fill it out again to update/confirm your availability. Not everyone runs at every meet so travel to each is unique. By filling out this form you are not committing to anything specific, you are simply adding your name to the pool of available drivers and vehicles. Each subsequent travel form will ask you to verify you can drive to that particular meet.

Updates:

Be sure to check the Race Schedule.  It”s never too early to look for potential conflicts with labs, exams, etc.  Also, the forms posted here and other seasonal forms can be found there.  Finally, keep an eye out for club social events!  They will be posted under the club Calendar!

In case you missed us at Quad Day, or were unable to get a flyer from us, here is the information you need to know.  Also, to anyone interested in Track and Field, there will be a informational meeting at 5:15pm tomorrow, Monday the 26th, at the west entrance of the Armory.

The summer is almost over, and almost time for Welcome Week!  That means Quad Day is almost here!

To incoming freshman, new members, or those interested in learning more about the Illinois Cross Country and Track Club:  

Quad Day is a fantastic opportunity to learn more about our organization by talking to coaches/board members, meet club members, and to sign-up for our mailing list.  We will be out all day, manning separate tables for both the Cross Country club and the Track and Field club.  We look forward to seeing you there!

To existing members:

As always, we need people to help out on Quad Day, so be on the look out for emails regarding volunteer duties!

The 2013 cross country schedule has been posted and will be updated with the necessary travel forms once the season is under way.  Only 2 week until official practices begin!

The Illinois Track Club competed at the 2013 NIRCA Track and Field Nationals in Bloomington, Indiana on April 6th. The men”s team finished 2nd in the team championship with a total team score of 139 points and the women”s team finished 1st with 241 points.