Iowa travels to Illinois for the Illinois State Invitational.
By Adam Hensley
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Today, the Hawkeye men’s cross-country squad will travel to Illinois State for the Illinois State Invitational at 5:45 p.m. Iowa will run against Illinois State, DePaul, Illinois-Chicago, Loyola, Wisconsin, Eastern Illinois, Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, and North Central.
Iowa will try to build on the Sept. 4 Hawkeye Early Bird Invitational in which it finished last among the four teams. Iowa State took the title.
“I would like to continue our focus of racing as a pack,” head coach Layne Anderson said. “We started the race off well last Friday but did not manage to stay together as well as we have shown in training.”
The Hawkeyes began their first meet running as a pack, but as the race continued, the pack thinned out.
However, most of Iowa’s runners ran unattached. Had they run attached, the finals would certainly have been different in Iowa’s favor.
Anderson believed the freshmen stole the show in the opener.
“I am excited certainly in the race last Friday,” he said. “Their performance was very indicative of their training to that point, so it will be exciting to see them race in uniform and to see how they handle the 8,000 distance.”
Ian Eklin aims to continue his strong start with the Hawkeyes; he ran unattached in the first meet, but in his first college competition, he placed third.
Two other freshmen, Bailey Hesse-Withbroe and Daniel Soto, placed in the top 20 at the meet. As did Eklin, the two ran unattached.
Iowa’s top two finishers, Ben Anderson and Michael Melchert, finished 14th and 15th.
“I would like to see our veterans continue to lead the group and coordinate our effort to race as a pack throughout the entire race,” Layne Anderson said.
Following Ben Anderson and Melchert, six Hawkeyes finished in the top 20-35, three of them placing in the low 30s.
After the Early Bird Invitational, Layne Anderson said there would be some motivation. Illinois State placed second, with its average finish 15 seconds faster than Iowa’s.
For the Redbirds, their top finisher on Sept. 4 was Jeff Bajema, who finished second with a time of 19:12.2. The junior was followed by Jonathan Lafayette and Brendan Hoskins, placing ninth and 10th. Those three will strive to continue their success, this time on their home course.
Compared with last week’s mid-90 degree heat, the temperature in Normal, Illinois, should be almost 20 degrees cooler, ideal conditions compared to the humid evening last week.
Last season, the Hawkeyes won the Illinois State Invitational. Kevin Lewis, now on the coaching staff, was Iowa’s top finisher at fourth. Current Iowa runners Ben Anderson, Anthony Gregorio, Taylor Soltys, Nate Ferree, and Melchert placed ninth, 12th, 13th, 14th, and 31st.
If Iowa wants to repeat its winning ways in Illinois, it will need the upperclassmen to step up and the underclassmen to continue their hot start. That recipe could lead to a second-straight Hawkeye victory in the meet and the team’s first of the season. That could give the Hawks some momentum as the season progresses.
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