Women capture Regional title; Men second

For the fifth time in nine years, the ICC women have captured the Region 24 title, this year with a dominating performance. Led by Raven Pettry's PR 19:40 something (no times available at press time!) in second place, the ladies took 6 of the top 11 places to score 17 points and beat second place Lincoln by 37 points. Raven was backed up nicely by Michelle Carter in 3rd, Deidra Klaus in 5th, Kayla Christ in 6th, Danie Fisher in 9th, Jordyn Hull in 11th, and Olivia Renken in 17th place. The Cougar Ladies are currently ranked 11th in the country and have yet to be topped by a Junior College team.

The men had a tougher task, with both Danville and Rend Lake coming into the race ranked ahead of them. Halfway through the race, it looked like the form charts would hold, but the Cougars would not give up. The entire team moved up quickly and finished with a flurry to take 5 of the top 15 places and finish second with 55 points. Danville, behind their 1-2 finish, won with 44, while perennial defending champion Rend Lake finished third with 59. Cougar placers were Ryan Van Fossen in 4th, David Lawson in 9th, and Nick Leiby, Trenton Hopper, and Brett Curry in places 13 through 15, respectively.

Next up: Nationals. Hosted by Spartanburg Methodist College in Spartanburg, SC on Saturday, November 13.

Cougars Capture Men's and Women's Skyhawk Trophies

The ICC men's and women's cross country teams dominated the Skyhawk invitational at Sauk Valley Community College yesterday. The women captured 6 of the top 10 places to score 23 points and easily dominate the North Central College "B" team. Michelle Carter sprinted past defending champ Victoria Casteneda of Sauk with a mile to go and won going away with a fine time of 19:39.8 on the 3.04 (3.10?!) mile course. She was followed by Raven Pettry in 3rd, and Kayla Christ in 4th places. Jordyn Hull, Deidra Klaus, and Danie Fisher ran their best races of the year in finishing in places 8, 9, and 10 respectively.

Not to be denied, the men put together their best effort as a team so far to gain revenge on nationally 21st ranked Waubonsee. Placing 5 runners between slots 6 and 15, the Cougars tallied 47 points to dominate Waubonsee and College of DuPage, who tied for second with 78. Ryan VanFossen and Brett Curry finished just 4 seconds apart in places 6 and 7, and were followed closely by David Lawson and Nick Leiby in the 9th and 10th positions. Led by Ryan's 28:12, just 23 seconds separated the Cougar top 4. Trenton Hopper took the last t-shirt home with him by virtue of his negative-split 15th place finish.

Coach's Comment: "I love the way the teams met the challenges we presented to them. This was a great tune-up for the regional meet in two weeks."

Regionals will be held at Winter Park Sports Complex in Danville on Friday, October 29th. Race time is 4:30. The ICC women, nationally ranked 10th, are top ranked in Region 24. The 25th ranked men are second ranked in the region behind the host school, ranked 19th nationally.

Women's Team is Junior College champ of the Benedictine Invitational

The ICC women's cross country team repeated as junior college champs of the Benedictine Eagle Invitational yesterday. The close knit sophomore trio of Michelle Carter, Kayla Christ, and Raven Pettry finished in 12th, 16th, and 17th places, respectively. Jordyn Hull in 41st and Danie Fisher in 56th place completed the scoring. Danie more than adequately stepped up to fill in for the injured Deidra Klaus. The team finished 4th overall in the strong field.

The men's team also competed well, finishing 7th overall and a close 2nd to Waubonsee in the Junior College division. They were led by frosh Brett Curry in 42nd place. No doubt the fresh haircut assisted in his 27:57 time! David Lawson, Nick Leiby, Ryan Van Fossen, and Trenton Hopper completed the scoring.

Next up for the Cougars will be the Sauk Valley Invite on Saturday, October 16. We'll be aiming for you, Waubonsee! This will be the last tune-up before the Regional championship meet at Danville on October 29.