Beggs Tenth at Illinois College; Final Meet for Griffins Before SLIACs
Jacksonville, Ill. - The Griffins cross country teams competed on Saturday at the Illinois College Invitational, their final meet before conference and regional championships.
Junior Olivia Beggs earned the Griffins Runner-of-the-Week honors, finishing 10th in a time of 25:23 for 6K. Beggs ran an almost identical time at the Illinois College meet last year, even though this year's field of runners ran about 45 seconds slower as a whole due to soggy footing and slight changes in the course. Junior Claire Becker had a solid race, finishing 26th in a time of 27:40, and freshmen Cathy Maschmeyer finished 36th in 28:17.
On the men's side, junior Cristian Sellars and sophomore Chris Brown showed their fitness is improving with times of 29:26 and 31:27 respectively. "Both men are much closer in fitness to their best performances last year than times would indicate," said Coach Blake. Senior captain Justin Horneker, who place 2nd at last year's meet, continues to struggle with a persistent illness and did not run.
"On both the women's and men's side training is going very well, but we have not seen a one hundred percent translation of that fitness in races. Thankfully, our team has a very positive attitude and we have two more meaningful races to put out best foot forward," said Coach Blake.