The Creighton men’s and women’s cross country teams squared up against a massive field of 36 other teams in Peoria, Illinois on Friday for the Bradley “Pink” Classic.
The meet, filled with lots of power-conference teams and some of the nation’s best runners, consisted of four races; a Men’s 8K, a Men’s 6K, and two heats of the Women’s 6Ks.
Head coach Chris Gannon described how difficult the Bradley “Pink” Classic could be for both the athletes and the coaches because of the sheer size of the competition.
“Bradley was made up entirely of Division 1 schools and packed full of over 250 runners each race,” Gannon said. “The density of the race itself is what separates Bradley most from other races. One of our kids felt ‘claustrophobic’ because of the volume, the traffic of runners.”
Despite the intimidating competition on the field and the more intense nature of the race, senior Danielle Hotalling led the way for the women who finished 22nd in the team competition of the first heat of the 6K.
Hotalling crossed the finish line exactly a minute behind the race winner, finishing in 25th place at 21:35.4.
Also finishing in the top 100 individually was senior Marguerite Hendrickson, who came in 59th with a time of 22:11, 30 seconds faster than her time at the 2019 Bradley “Pink” Classic.
On the men’s side, senior John Quigley, the top performer for the 25th place Jays, took 44th, with a time of 24:56.3 on the 8K course and continued to stay at the top of the Jays’ scoring leaderboard.
Friday was the third time in four meets this fall that Quigley has been the Jays’ race leader, and his time was 23 seconds faster than his pace on the same course two years ago.
“He’s brought with him the energy off of a really good spring season last year, and the team as a whole has really been coming together,” Gannon said. “Four years of work is coming together.”
Other top performers on the day for the men included a promising 115th place finish from freshman Ryan Montera and just behind him junior Danny Bohneman in 119th.
With the Big East Cross Country Championship a couple weeks out, the teams are on track to have an amazing end to the season.
“We’re really just making final tune ups right now as we’re in striking distance to make a really good appearance,” Gannon said. “The Big East is a less dense, totally different race where results can differ a lot.”
Gannon also said that the Bradley “Pink” had been a good opportunity to scout out the competition such as Xavier, Marquette and DePaul, who will all be making appearances at the Big East Championship.
“I’m confident we can hit on all cylinders and possibly have the best men’s showing in cross country ever,” Gannon said. “After four years of building up this dream, we’re getting to where we need to be.”
With the climax of their season nearly here, the men’s and women’s cross country teams are set to return to the course next Friday, Oct. 29.