Sycamores Prepare for Illinois Invitational, Take Weekend Off From Competition
Indiana State’s men’s and women’s cross country teams will take this weekend off from competition and will next compete at the Illinois Invitational in Champaign, Ill., on Friday, Sept. 25. Both teams won team titles at the Bradley Open last Friday.

 
 

WOMEN’S REPORT  Sycamore Notes  •Kelley Strickler (Sr., Worthington, Ind./White River Valley) continues to lead the Sycamore attack, finishing as the top ISU runner at the Bradley Open in third place.  •Michelle McIntosh (So., Fowler, Ind./Benton Central) improved her personal best to 18:32 in finishing as ISU’s second runner in fifth place at the Bradley Open. McIntosh moves to 20th on the Sycamore all time performer list.  •Alisha McDaniel (So., Evansville, Ind./Reitz) cut nearly 30 seconds off of her personal best time at the Bradley Open, clocking 19:07 to place 13th. McDaniel had equalled her previous personal best of 19:36 at Sycamore Pride.  •Indiana State’s time gap between the number one and number five runners was :43 in the Sycamores’ win on Friday. That’s two seconds faster than the first meet of the season, despite junior Annie Cooper sitting out and freshman Talia Barwick not finishing with injuries.  Quoting Coach John Gartland  “We handled the adversity of leaving Annie home with an injury and Talia dropping out with injury very well. Kelley Strickler ran a very good race to finish third and our depth was great. Bradley was ranked ahead of us and it feels good to defeat them by as much as we did, although they were missing key people with injury as well.”  Last Week  ISU won the team title at the Bradley Open, scoring 36 points to finish on top of the 11-team field. The Sycamores defeated host and MVC rival Bradley, ranked ahead of Indiana State in the preseason, by a large 36-61 margin. Strickler finished third (18:24) to pace the Sycamores. McIntosh was fifth overall (18:32), while Angi Decker (Sr., Terre Haute, Ind./South) placed eighth (18:47). Erica Turner (Jr., Greencastle, Ind./Greencastle) placed 10th (18:56) to give ISU four runners in the top 10. McDaniel placed 13th (19:07), Danelle Leaf 14th (19:10), Carlee Asher finished 24th (19:36) and Alicia Mitchell was 28th (19:46). Freshman Talia Barwick, making her ISU debut, did not finish the race due to a torn calf muscle.  Coach John Gartland   John Gartland is in his 11th season as ISU’s women’s cross country and track and field head coach. Gartland was named the Missouri Valley Conference Outdoor Track and Field Coach of the Year last season after directing the ISU squad to the 1998 MVC outdoor title. His Sycamore cross country teams have finished lower than third only twice in 10 years while winning two league titles.

MEN’S REPORT  Sycamore Notes  •Rick Sluder (Sr., Fairbanks, Ind./North Central) was named the Missouri Valley Conference Men’s Cross Country Athlete of the Week after winning the individual title at the Bradley Open, clocking 25:17 on the 8,000m course. The title was the first individual crown of Sluder’s career.  •Indiana State placed eight runners in the top 10 finishers at the Bradley Open en route to the best team score ISU has posted since 1983.  •Jeff Andrew (So., Moores Hill, Ind./South Dearborn) led five Sycamores with career bests at the Bradley Open, clocking 25:28 to place fifth as ISU’s fourth finisher. Travis Lozier (So., West Terre Haute, Ind./West Vigo), Tim Galati (So., Valparaiso, Ind./Portage), Chad Contri (Hillsdale, Ind./South Vermillion) and Jason Small (Jr., Franklin, Ind./Franklin) also recorded personal bests.  •The time gap between ISU’s first runner, Sluder, to its fifth finisher, Steve Hertenstein (Sr., Columbus, Ind./East), was just 18 seconds, a 12-second improvement over the gap at Sycamore Pride.  Quoting Coach John McNichols  (on the Bradley Open) - “The race worked out like we had talked about earlier in the week. We got out and controlled the tempo and did a great job of working as a team. That’s what’s so important about this meet. Geoff Wayton really anchored the second group of runners, and Jason Gunn has a lot of legspeed and kicked it in. That group of runners, including Travis Lozier and Jeff Andrew, was the key to the race for us. Steve Hertenstein ran his typical steady race and bulldogged it in at the end to help our team score.”  Last Week  ISU came away with the team title at the Bradley Open Friday afternoon, scoring 19 points to take top honors in the 11-team field. Sluder won the men’s 8,000-meter race to lead the Sycamores. Sluder led much of the men’s race as Indiana State dominated the field, placing six runners in the top 10. Eastern Illinois was the second place team, totalling 62 points. Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Illinois-Chicago and Bradley rounded out the top five teams.  Coach John McNichols  John McNichols is in his 16th campaign as ISU’s men’s track and field and cross country head coach and his 11th as coordinator of the Sycamores’ combined track and field program. McNichols has led ISU to its first-ever MVC and Indiana Intercollegiates cross country titles in the past two years.