Illinois State Cross Country Prepares For Bradley Pink Classic

Image courtesy of goredbirds.com

NORMAL, Ill. – The Illinois State Cross Country Program will travel to Bradley University this Friday for the Bradley Pink Classic.

Graduate student Jake Gillum said that the goal going into Friday is simple, run hard and build momentum for the upcoming Missouri Valley Conference Championship and regional meets.

“This is definitely an opportunity for us to build a little bit of momentum going into the postseason with conference and regionals coming up, our goals here are for our returners to reestablish the talent that we had last year,” Gillum said. “If everybody runs the race that we think we can, we are getting healthy at the right time and getting fit at the right time, so hopefully we can build something going into the next few weeks.”

Gillum noted that the Redbird’s season got off to a rough start because of injuries and a new team layout, but some of the younger runners have stepped up as the postseason approaches.

“We had three really good seniors graduate, so it was tough trying to fill some of those spots early, but at the same time that allows a lot of younger guys to sort of step up,” Gillum said. “We need to have some of our freshman and newcomers who weren’t maybe expecting to be on a conference role this year step up and fill some of the gaps.”

This Friday, the women’s team will compete in the women’s Red and White 6K races, while the men compete in the 8K White and 6K Red races.

The Redbirds will host the Missouri Valley Conference Championships later this month on Friday, October 29th. For the latest on everything Redbird Cross Country, follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram