Saturday, September 26, 2009

Cougars Come up "Short" at Augi Invite


Both the men's and women's cross country teams came up short in their quest to meet the challenge of the strong Iowa Central teams at the Brissman/Lundeen Cross Country Invitational hosted by Augustana College at Credit Island Park yesterday.
The men, running without an injured Frederick Kiprono, finished 14th of 26 teams overall and 3rd in the Junior College division behind Iowa Central and North Iowa Area CC. Shane Leiby was the top ICC finisher in 51st place with a time of 26:48, just 13 seconds over his PR. JQ Smith in 66th place and Josh Battles in 115th also were near their personal bests. Robert Deatherage moved into the 5th team position with his best showing of the year.
On the women's side, not only did the Cougars come up short in finishing second behind 4th ranked Iowa Central, but the race itself ended up 580 meters short when the lead vehicle took a wrong turn. Despite that, Brittany Carius became the first ICC runner to place in the top 25 in the meet with her 24th place finish. Running in 17th for most of the race, she was caught by surprise by the short race, and dropped back in the last 200 meters. The team finished 10th of the 21 teams - second in the JC division. Michelle Carter, Alyssa Imig, Kayla Christ, and Raven Pettry all finished within 10 places and 11 seconds of each other to complete the scoring.
The Cougars now face a well-deserved week off from competition before next competing in the Benedictine Eagle Invite in Lisle, IL on October 9, where both the men's and women's teams are defending Junior College division champions.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Illinois Intercollegiate Championships


Running in their biggest meet of the year, the ICC men's and women's cross country teams finished 9th and 10th, respectively, out of 24 non-division I teams at the Illinois Intercollegiate Championships, held yesterday at the ISU golf course. The first 5 men were all at 28:00 or better, with soph Shane Leiby leading the pack with a 26:46. That placed him 18th in the college division field, 95th overall in the field of 334. Close on his heals was frosh JQ Smith (pictured) with a 26:59. Nick Leiby, Josh Battles, and Frederick Kiprono took the 44th through 46th places to complete the scoring quintet.
Brittany Carius ran her fastest time, 19:03, since last year's nationals to finish 13th among the 237 college team runners, 36th among all runners, including Division I. In 43rd place came Michelle Carter (pictured), who's 19:54 broke 20:00 for the first time and moved her into the top 10 ICC women times ever. Frosh Raven Pettry and Kayla Christ followed in the 58th and 66th places, while soph Bonni Martin rounded out the scoring in 94th place.
Both the women's and men's teams are highly ranked nationally - 5th for the women and 7th for the men. The next test will be Friday, September 25 at Credit Island, Davenport, Iowa, in the Augustana College invitational.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Teams and Individuals Excel at Bradley Open


Both the men's and women's teams showed their progress at the Bradley Open Friday at Detweiller park. The men finished 6th of the 12 non-division I teams while the women did even better: 3rd of 11.

The men were led by Shane Leiby, who's PR 26:35 now ranks 9th all-time at ICC. Pushing him to that fine time was frosh JQ Smith, who just missed the top 10 with his 26:47. Also registering big PR's were Nick Leiby (27:45), Josh Battles (27:36), Brock Kingsland (30:16), and Bobby Widick, making his ICC debut with a fine 29:11. In all, 10 Cougars registered sub-30:00 times.

The top women's finisher was once again Brittany Carius, who's 19:14 now ranks 5th all-time. Also breaking into the top 10 all-time was freshman Kayla Christ (pictured), with an excellent time of 20:08. Hot on her heels were two more frosh: Michelle Carter, with a time of 20:12, and Raven Pettry, who cashed in with 20:25. Olivia Renken showed great improvement over last week with her time of 24:23, which bested her race goal of sub 8:00 pace. Another big improvement was shown by Bonni Martin, who moved into the number 6 team slot this week.

Based on the teams' showings from last week, the men's team is ranked 9th in the NJCAA Division I poll while the women's team debuted at number 6. This week's race should not hurt those rankings at all.

Next Friday: Illinois Intercollegiates at the ISU golf course. This will be our first seasonal meeting with powerhouse Rend Lake, currently ranked 1st in the men's poll and 5th in the women's.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Brittany Carius Breaks School Record at WIU Open

Brittany Carius led a strong women's team to a 4th place finish in the 7 team Western IL University Early Bird Cross country Invitational on Friday, September 4. Her time of 23:39, in finishing 7th in the strong field, broke her time of last year by 15 seconds. The team scored 77 points with all 5 scorers in the top 23 positions.
Other scorers were Alyssa Imig in 14th, and the frosh trio of Michelle Carter, Kayla Christ, and Raven Pettry in the 18, 19, and 23 spots. With their times, Alyssa and Michelle also penetrate the top 10 of all time list for a 6k course. Kayla and Raven come close, with their times ranking 11th and 13th all time.
The men also finished in 4th place and were led by top returner Shane Leiby in 30th place. Close behind were freshman JQ Smith in 31st, and brother Nick Leiby, running his first race, in 32nd. Rounding out the top 5 were Frederick Kiprono in 44th and Robert Deatherage in 48th. It was a solid start to the season, with the top 5 all finishing between 27:54 and 29:05, and sixth position runner Cory Shoopman also finishing under 30 minutes in the 8k race.
Next race: Bradley Open at Detweiller Park. Men's 8k at 5:30, Women's 5k at 6:15 (Yes, team, I'm sure of it!)