The IU men’s and women’s cross-country teams will lace up for the Indiana Intercollegiate Meet this weekend in Bloomington after not competing last weekend. Both teams come off first-place finishes at the Indiana University Open, where the men took 25 points from Miami University.
Senior Jason Crist led the Hoosiers in the men’s race and took first overall while sophomore Brenna Calder finished first in the women’s race. Both teams will look to continue the winning trend.
All freshmen ran unattached last time out, and some runners will get to put an official IU uniform on for the first time this weekend. Freshmen Ben Veatch, Hannah Stoffel and Katherine Receveur all impressed IU Coach Ron Helmer, and he said they will run with the team this time out, Veatch with the men’s team and Stoffel and Receveur with the women’s.
“I wanted to run the freshmen unattached the first race to see where they are,” Helmer said. “And those three will put on a uniform and run this weekend.”
The cross-country and track and field teams will honor late IU Coach Sam Bell this season with special “SB” patches on their uniforms. Bell led the Hoosiers to 22 Big Ten titles and two individual NCAA Championships in his 28-year reign at IU.
This week the men’s team jumped up one spot from No. 17 to No. 16 in the latest edition of the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association poll. The poll also lists the Hoosier men as first in the Great Lakes region. The Hoosiers passed Boise State for the 16th spot and trail just one other Big Ten team, Wisonsin, in the rankings. IU leads Michigan and Michigan State.
The women’s team is currently No. 6 in the Great Lakes region according to the USTFCCCA poll.
The Intercollegiate Meet will feature 21 schools, including Division I programs such as Ball State, Evansville, Indiana State, IUPUI and Purdue.
Last year the women’s team took home its seventh consecutive first place finish in the meet and will look to make it eight come Friday. The men’s team failed to finish first last year and placed third overall, which snapped a three-year winning streak of their own.
The Intercollegiate Meet will be at the IU Cross Country Course, and there will be two separate races for each team. An open 5k meet will be run by the women at 3 p.m. followed by the men’s open 8k at 3:30 p.m. The championship races will begin with the women’s 5k at 4:40 p.m. and conclude with the men’s 8k at 5:15 p.m.
