Cross country teams finish strong in competitions
The University of Indianapolis cross country team competed at the Indiana Intercollegiates at Indiana State University on Sept. 14. The women won the annual Little State competition, while the men finished second overall.
Individuals who placed in the top 20 overall for the women included junior Sutton Knapp at fourth overall, senior Stephanie Cave at eighth, sophomore Jacklyn Howland at 10th, junior Haley Wittig at 18th and junior Katherine Wilhelm at 19th.
For the men, sophomore Alex Cushman led UIndy, finishing second overall. Junior Ben McMillan finished eighth, sophomore Sean O’Brien finished 13th and senior Ian O’Boyle rounded out the top 20 finishing 20th overall.
Going into the Intercollegiate meet, Head Cross Country Coach Kathy Casey said that each meet has serves as a step-by-step process of building toward the teams ultimate goals.
“I’ve been telling them that these [meets] are chapters of the books of us,” Casey said. “We’ve had Chapter One and Chapter Two, [and] this is Chapter Three. And it all builds until we get to the races that count the most. And that’s when we put it all together and basically the puzzle is complete.”
Before competing at the Indiana Intercollegiates, Knapp said that the team wanted to do a great job at the meet.
“We really want to win this year, but our goal as a team is top two,” Knapp said.
Casey said that for the men, she expected a few individuals to step up.
“On my guy side, I really [have] got to have a couple of guys step out to be my four, five,” Casey said, “be strong of mind and of body when we’re out there, [and] put it all together.”
Heading into the Indiana Intercollegiates, Cushman said that he had a goal of where he wanted to finish.
“It’s a far shot, but I’m going to try to win that as a Little State… and try to go under 25:30 for the 8K,” Cushman said.
Cushman missed his goal by a mere few seconds, finishing with a time of 25:33.6.
The cross country teams also competed at the Queen City Invitational on Sept. 9 at A.J. Jolly Park. For the women, Knapp placed fourth overall and Cave placed ninth, which helped lead the women to a top-place finish in the NCAA Division II field. Cushman placed third for the men and McMillan placed seventh, leading the men to a second place finish in the Division II field.
The Greyhounds began their season on Sept. 1, competing at the 50th edition of the Wabash Hokum Karem at Wabash College. The annual relay featured a 2×3 mile relay for the men and a 2×2 mile relay for the women.
The women took the top overall spot of the six teams that competed. The top finishing pairs included Cave and Knapp, who finished second, and Howland and Wittig who finished third.
The men’s team finished second overall of seven total teams that competed, finishing behind the host Little Giants of Wabash. Leading the way for UIndy were the pairs of Cushman and McMillan, who finished in first place, and O’Brien and junior Aaron Beck who finished in fourth.
The team’s next meet is at the University of Louisville on Sept. 29, where they will compete at the Greater Louisville Classic at 9:30 a.m.
