Cross Country Charging into the Postseason
By Justin Brown, Harbinger
Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2015
Behind a strong season from Caleb Imig, the Illinois Central College cross country team will look to win their first regional championship since 2013.
Imig, a sophomore from Tremont, already has several top 10 finishes this season and believes he is continuing to get better. With the Region XXIV tournament on Oct. 22 and NJCAA national championship on Nov. 14, the timing couldn’t be better.
“I am not quite where I want to be time wise,” Imig said, “but I think that’s because I push myself so hard in the summer and throughout this season. I’m not quite fresh yet. I think when we taper off for regionals and nationals I will be fresh.”
Imig said he will be eating plenty of carbs and getting plenty of rest in preparation for a return trip to the national championship. Last year, the Cougars finished 25th overall with Imig being the top Cougar to cross the finish line in 107th place.
Photo Justin Brown
Other members of the men’s team include Colton Dailey (Tremont), Joel Anglin (Metamora), Colin Siedleck (Tremont) and Brett Bennett (Illinois Central HS).
The ICC men won the St. Ambrose Fighting Bee Invitational and took third overall at the Western Illinois Early Bird Invite. ICC closed out the regular season with an eight-place finish at the Bradley Pink Classic.
On the women’s side, head coach Michael Lewellyn’s runners are also making headlines. Like the men, the Lady Cougars won the St. Ambrose Fighting Bee Invitational and took third at the Western Illinois Early Bird Invite. This year’s team has more depth than last year’s squad, which had only two members.
“We got seven just outstanding young ladies and on any given day any one of them can be the front and anyone can be the last, what I do see a lot of them doing,” Lewelleyn said. “There is about five of them that are packing together really, really tight throughout most of the race and as we get towards the end they start spreading out a bit.
Photo Justin Brown
“They are just really, really keeping us close.”
Sydney Bontz (Limestone) is the lone sophomore on this year’s team. Bontz also competed at the 2014 NJCAA national championship finishing in 195th place. Other runners include Hannelore Book (Brimfield), Lita Davis (Streator), Abigail Green (Delavan), Mayra Martinez (Manual), Olivia Szentes (Limestone) and Dayna Trayer (Metamora).
“We don’t really have an outstanding lead runner that is running with some of the other teams lead runners, but our pack is making up for that,” Lewellyn said. “That’s what I’ve told them, ‘They don’t have the middle or the back end depth. They’ve got the front ends but they don’t have the middle and back like we do, so we’ve got to just keep on doing what we are doing.’”
The Cougar cross country team begins their postseason play on Thursday, Oct. 22. The national championships are in Ft. Dodge Iowa on Nov. 14.