Illinois State Cross Country Looks to Start Postseason With Dominate Performance at MVC Championship

Image courtesy of goredbirds.com

NORMAL, Ill. – The Illinois State Cross-Country program will host the Missouri Valley Conference Championship this Friday, October 29th at Weibring Golf Course.

Both the men’s and women’s cross-country teams look to start their postseason with a strong performance, before traveling to the NCAA Midwest Regional on November 12th in Iowa City, Iowa.

The Redbirds closed out their regular season at the Illini invite last weekend, with the women’s team taking a dominant first-place finish, led by Freshman Kaitlin Skeate, who took third-place in the women’s 6K event.

The men’s team was led by Freshman Julian Head, who also took a third-place finish in the men’s 8k with a time of 26:11.7.

Sophomore Ailey Mitchell said that one of the struggles that both rosters endured during the regular season was getting back to the racing and cross-country mindset.

“It’s just been so long since we’ve had an actual cross-country season. We technically had one last year, but we only raced twice, and we didn’t have anything last fall,” Mitchell said. “It’s just been kind of hard getting back into that mindset that you are running cross country. You aren’t running Track; you are running cross.”

When asked about what to expect at the MVC Championship this Friday, Mitchell said to expect a great performance from the Redbirds.

“You can expect us to do really well, we are really trying to put out our A-game on it. I know we’ve all trained really hard. We’ve been working for this for a really long time, so I think we are all going to go out there and kill it. I think you can expect a good thing”

Mitchell also had some words for her teammates to get them in the right mindset for the upcoming race.

“We’ve put in the work, and now it’s time to show it. I know that we are ready, and it’s time to prove to everybody else that we can do it.”

The MVC Championship will kick off on Friday at 1:00 p.m. with the women’s 6K race first, followed by the men’s 8K race at 2:00 p.m. For more information and all the latest on Redbird track & field and cross-country, follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.