CHARLESTON, Ill. – The Vincennes University Cross Country season got off to an interesting start Friday afternoon at the 2024 Walt Crawford Open hosted by Eastern Illinois University.
High temperatures and a lightning delay forced changes to the schedule, which caused the men’s and women’s races to be run at the same time and the men’s race to be changed to a 5K race instead of the usual 8K.
“The meet got pushed back an hour on Thursday due to the hot weather,” VU Head Cross Country Coach Tyler Steigenga said. “An hour before the women’s race on Friday, there was lightning in the area, so we had to take shelter inside. We waited about an hour and then all of the coaches got told that we were going to run the men and women together with both doing a 5K. It got a little chaotic as that gave everyone less than 20 minutes to get to the line in order to get the race in before more potential storms. To add to the chaos it was 90 degrees at the start, with a real feel of 98 degrees.”
The VU runners were still determined to put together good times on the course however, as once the meet finally got underway, VU freshman Ibrahim Sakka (Kairouan, Tunisia) led the way for the blue and gold, posting a time of 15:41.1 and taking sixth place overall.
Sophomores Caden Hostetler (LaGrange, Ind.) and Cody Noel (Hebron, Ind.) were next across the line, with Hostetler setting a time of 16:49.2 and Noel coming in at 16:50.7 for 21st and 22nd place overall.
Freshman Lane Connaway (Carmi, Ill.) was the fourth VU runner across the line, finishing with a time of 17:14.1 and taking 28th place overall.
Sophomore Tanner Spence (Carmi, Ill.) rounded out the Vincennes scorers with a final time of 17:35.9 and taking 33rd place overall.
Spence was closely followed by freshmen Jeremy Delobel (Velpen, Ind.) and Rylan Mullins (Greenwood, Ind.) with Delobel placing 34th at 17:41.8 and Mullins finishing at 17:45.6.
The last group of VU runners was led by sophomore Bryaun Manuel (East St. Louis, Ill.) who took 40th place overall with a time of 18:11.1.
Sophomore Nathan Whitehead (Vincennes, Ind.) and freshman Hayden Kler (Hillsboro, Ind.) were right behind with Whitehead finishing with a time of 18:12.6 and Kler crossing at 18:40.8.
Freshmen Alexis Kwizera (Indianapolis, Ind.), Dakoda Greci (Danville, Ind.) and Tucker Henson (Louisville, Ky.) rounded out the VU men’s runners with Kwizera posting a time of 18:50.3, Greci at 19:08.0 and Henson crossing the line at 19:34.5.
Overall the Vincennes University men’s team finished third as a team after coming in with a total of 63 points.
The VU women’s team was unable to post a team score with only three runners able to compete Friday, but the runners still put together some good times and placed well individually.
The VU women’s team was led by freshman Allie Black (Lynn, Ind.) who finished with a time of 20:31.1 and took 12th place overall.
Sophomore Adi Fuller (Evansville, Ind.) placed 27th overall with a final time of 22:43.6, just ahead of freshman Alexis Hale (Evansville, Ind.) who finished at 23:34.4 to take 28th place overall.
“The circumstances weren’t ideal for running fast,” Steigenga added. “I’m just glad we were able to get out on the course and compete. The times were slow across the board today and definitely don’t reflect what we’ve been doing in practice. The exception was Allie Black, who managed to PR by 15 seconds. I was expecting big improvement from Allie this season as she has taken her training to a new level from high school, but was very surprised to see it happen in these conditions.”
“We’ve got three weeks to continue stacking some good training and then get a much better idea of where we are at when we compete at Indiana State,” Steigenga said.
The Trailblazer Cross Country teams will look to build off of these times and continue to improve as the season progresses, hopefully with much better running conditions, as VU now turns their attention to the 2024 John McNichols Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 21, hosted by Indiana State University.
The races will be run at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in Terre Haute.
