Last Friday brought the season’s first snowfall to Peoria, but the show, albeit a frigid one, went on for the men’s and women’s cross country teams as they ran in 38 degree weather at Newman Golf Course.
The men’s team placed four athletes in the top 12 to finish first of 33 teams. The women’s team ran well enough to claim eighth of 39 teams.
The Ideal Rentals Bradley Pink Classic attracted teams from all over the Midwest region because it served as a way for them to learn and prepare for the future meets, like the MVC Championship and Midwest Regional which will be held on the same course in November.
“This meet is always perfect weather,” junior Jake Hoffert said. “This year it was just a slop-fest out there. Weather or not, times don’t matter, it’s all about the racing. The team adapted well.”
Hoffert finished first for the Braves and fifth overall. He was followed closely by senior Micheal Ward in seventh, redshirt senior Haran Dunderdale in 11th and his twin brother junior Luke Hoffert in 12th. Junior Will Anderson finished 28th and also factored into the team’s winning score of 76.
Jake Hoffert said he is proud of himself and his teammates for coming out strong and justifying their high ranking in the region.
“We’ve got some guys who were out for a couple of weeks with nagging injuries,” Hoffert said. “We are all excited and getting ready [for the championship meets].”
Head coach Darren Gauson said he was happy with the men’s team performance and hopes their first win at the Pink Classic in five years will give them a boost in confidence for the rest of the season.
“If we can just get Will [Anderson] or Jack Franklin or [Alec] Hartman a little bit closer to fourth, we are going to be really dangerous in a month for the regional meet,” Gauson said. “We looked pretty dominant on the conference level and we beat Illinois. We are probably going to slide up a little bit in terms of perception and regional rankings.”
Gauson was also happy with the women’s team performance and the toughness they showed.
“If we can get everyone to fire on the same day we are going to be even better,” Gauson said. “It was nice to see Gabby [Juarez] a little bit further up and Niamh [Markham] finishing because she rolled her ankle at Wisconsin.”
Juarez led the Braves once again finishing 26th and was closely followed by freshman Tyler Schwartz in 39th place. Junior Abby Jockisch ran across the finish line 72nd. Freshman Ayah Aldadah and Markham rounded out the top five for the women.
“[The women] are still really young with three freshman and Niamh not having a lot of cross country experience,” Gauson said. “We are still learning, but I think with a few more weeks we will be better than we were today, but top of the MVC which is where we are looking to be.”
“We tried to work together the best that we could,” Juarez said. “It’s easy to see each other with the bows we put in our hair so we just tried to work up to [who] we spotted and pull each other along.”
The Braves will send a select few runners to the Illini Open today in Champaign, but they are more focused on being healthy and ready for the MVC Championship on Oct. 27 at Newman Golf Course. The women will run at 4 p.m. and the men run at 4:40 p.m.
