TERRE HAUTE, Ind. ? In years past, weather has been a factor at Indiana State's annual Sycamore Pride Alumni/Intrasquad scrimmage. However, this year a more perfect day could not have been ordered for current and former Sycamores alike on Saturday morning at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center.
“I was very pleased with what I saw today,” said men's head coach John McNichols. “The main thing I was looking at today was our overall fitness and to how well the guys trained over the summer. By all my observations, everything went very well and we certainly couldn't have asked for a better day to run.”
In last year's men's race, the alumni squad defeated their collegiate counterparts in the race by one point. However, this year the Sycamores got some revenge on the alums by a score of 23-44. Former all-conference runner Sean Bowman won the 5k race and led the alumni squad to the finish line in a time of 15:36.60. The next two finishers were current Sycamores, with freshman Craig Padgett in second place at 15:42.52 and sophomore Michael Disher in third place in 15:43.96. Alum Antonio McDaniel finished in fourth place with a time of 15:44.27, followed closely by fifth-year senior Kyle Walsh in fifth place at 15:44.53.
“We had a lot of guys under 16 minutes and for the high volume of training we're doing right now, it was a great effort,” said McNichols. “I was really pleased with how Craig ran today and it was great to get Kyle back in the fold after missing all last season due to injury. Disher performed like he has been in all of our workouts today and that next group of Scott Koressel, Jared Messmann, Eric Schulz and Scott Keeney all ran extremely well as a group today. Our depth proved to be strong today and I think we have a lot to look forward to heading into the first month of competition.”
In the women's 4k race, four alums took the course to race against the Sycamores which meant no team score was kept. However, the race was successful for the alums as Dani Prince won the race in a time of 14:17.70. The next four finishers were current Sycamores, led by senior Heather Stembridge in second place with a time of 14:43.16. Junior Kayla Alexander was third with a time of 15:03.73, followed by freshman Kacie Klem in fourth (15:10.25) and Allison Malone in fifth (15:37.26). Former Sycamore all-American Jessica Wayton rounded out the top group with a time of 15:37.26 in sixth place.
“It was a great day to welcome everyone back, with the only disappointment being we didn't have enough alumni run to post a team score,” said women's head coach John Gartland. “But, up front it was a very tough race with Dani leading the way. She's now running professionally in road races for Brooks and really took our athletes out fast. I think Heather and Kayla both faded a bit because of that, but Heather rebounded and finished strong and Kayla ran well in third. Kaci and Allison also did a tremendous job today, so one-through-four we looked pretty strong.”
Indiana State will open its regular season on Friday, Sept. 12, when they travel to Peoria, Ill., to compete in the Bradley Invitational.
