Men’s cross-country overcomes set-backs
The University of Indianapolis men’s cross country team has competed in four meets this season and has two more to run for the Great Lakes Valley Conference to prepare regional meets.
The Greyhounds traveled to Chicago for the Sean Earl Lake Front Invitational on Oct. 2. The men placed 22nd of 41 teams. Individually, sophomore Mark Martinez led the team with a 36th place finish and junior Samuel Bird followed at 93rd place.
The men placed fifth of 15 at the annual Indiana Intercollegiates Cross-Country Championships at Purdue University on Sept. 17. The team was led once again by Martinez, with a third place overall finish, and Bird with a top ten finish.
The Greyhounds had a strong second place finish at the Hanover Invitational on Sept. 13. Martinez was the overall individual winner with a time of 16:12. Bird placed third with 16:22, freshman Chris Corsaro grabbed eighth with 17:02, Josh Gornall placed ninth at 17:07 and Ben McMillan placed 11th with 17:20. The men’s cross-country team opened its season on Sept. 4 at Wabash College for the Hokum Karem. The team placed fourth overall with Bird and Martinez leading the team with a sixth place finish as a pair at 29:12, just 20 seconds off the winning pace.
At the same meets last year, the UIndy men’s cross-country team placed 2nd, 1st, 6th and 16th place, respectively.
“We have had some setbacks this season with athletes getting hurt and not having all our athletes able to compete for the team due to various circumstances,” Martinez said.
Despite these obstacles, the team rallied together to support and encourage each other.
“Our biggest accomplishment as a team I think has been overcoming the adversity our team has had to go through with injuries and other issues,” Bird said. “We all really stuck together and kept on encouraging everyone to stay on stuff and getting the job done no matter what.”
The last meets of the season are important for the Greyhounds as they will help decide team rankings before entering the postseason.
Martinez commented on how they hope to be regionally ranked before the postseason arrives, and he was hopeful that the team would continue to overcome their injuries and have strong individual performances.
“I would also like to see the team run some faster times and place well to give everyone the motivation to do well at conference and regionals as a team,” Bird said. “The team going to nationals would be the ultimate goal for us this year.”
Before this goal, however, comes conference and regionals. The conference tournament is an 8K race held between the 12 participating GLVC schools with cross-country teams.
Current individual leaders in the GLVC at the 8K distance include runners from five different schools.
“Conference is one of our most competitive meets, not just because it is a big race but because it decides what school is the best in the conference,” Bird said.
Last year, the Greyhounds placed fourth in the GLVC tournament and moved on to regionals. At regionals, they failed to make the top five as a team, which ended their season. According to Martinez this season, men’s cross-country team hopes to make the top five and have a shot at the national title.
The GLVC conference meet is on Nov. 6. The regional meet will follow on Nov. 20.
