XC finishes at regionals
The University of Indianapolis men’s and women’s cross country teams finished their seasons at the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional at Ferris State University on Nov. 5.
The women finished 18th out of 23 teams. Top runners were junior Stephanie Cave, who placed 56th, freshmen Jacki Howland and Hannah Rucker, coming in at 83rd and 84th, respectively.
The men’s squad finished 13th out 22 teams overall with senior Mark Martinez leading the pack.
Martinez finished in 32nd with a time of 33:24.7, and freshman Sean O’Brien placed 61st with a finishing time of 34:05.8. Freshman Alex Cushman and sophomore Jacob Fisher rounded out UIndy’s top 100 male finishers.
The University of Indianapolis men’s cross country team placed fifth out of 13 teams, and the women’s cross country team placed sixth out of 12 teams at the NCAA regional meet in Evansville, Ind., on Oct. 22.
“If you look at our times online, we’re all doing better and getting faster,” said junior Emily Bernstein. “We’re hoping to do better as a team.”
UIndy participated in the largest DII conferences in the country.
Progress has been made in that past few years, according to the team’s assistant coach Bradley Robinson.
“We are much improved from last year, where we finished ninth as a team. We are kind of hungry in a sense,” he said. “We were more or less happy that we had one more race to improve even more.”
As a result of the meet, the men’s team is now ranked 10th out of 24 teams. The women’s team came in outside of the top 10 ranking at No. 12.
Cross country members run at least once a day, Monday through Friday. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the teams have morning and evening practices and on Sundays the teams run 12 to 14 miles.
According to Robinson, the runners put in a lot of hard work and dedication.
The team is young, and as of next year, there will be no seniors.
“It’s important that we all uphold our end,” Robinson said.
Martinez finished 17th overall. According to Martinez, running is as mental as it is physical. He said he has to go against his natural instincts to keep pushing in spite of the pain.
“Being a student-athlete puts your time into perspective,” Martinez said.
According to Martinez, this experience has pushed him to become a better athlete and student. He has developed a structured schedule to help him succeed.
“There is always room for improvement,” he said. “We’re definitely satisfied with our position, but there is still room for improvement.”
Bernstein finished the meet and placed 45th with an overall time of 23:41.5.
When the team realized that it had done better overall this year than in the previous year, there was a sense of elation according to Bernstein.
“Running is a feeling I can’t describe,” she said. “I personally run every day because I want to get better.”
