INDIANAPOLIS – The 2022 Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) Women's and Men’s Cross Country Championships will be held on Saturday, Nov. 5, at Principia University Cross Country Course in Elsah, Illinois, with McKendree serving as host.
For the ninth-straight season, the GLVC Cross Country Championships is scheduled to be streamed on the GLVC Sports Network (GLVCSN), while this will be the third-straight event that will be live streamed rather than tape-delayed.
The 2022 postseason race will open with the 44th annual men's 8,000-meter run at 10:30 AM Central Time, followed by the 39th annual women's 6,000-meter run at 11:30 AM.
The top-placing men's and women's teams will be named the 2022 GLVC Champion, respectively. In addition, the top-20 individual finishers on the women's and men's side will be named All-GLVC, and the medalist of each race will be named the GLVC Runner of the Year. The top-finishing freshman on both sides will garner GLVC Freshman of the Year honors.
Last year, the Southern Indiana women's program extended its league record with its 14th title in the final year of league membership. The Screaming Eagles ran away with the 2021 title by besting host Lewis by 36 points in Romeoville, Ill. USI totaled 44 points on the day, followed by Lewis with 80, and Southwest Baptist was third with 86 points. Drury scored 113 points for fourth place, while Indianapolis rounded out the top-five teams in fifth with 132 points. Lindenwood (148) improved upon its 2020 showing by two positions, finishing sixth, ahead of Illinois Springfield (162) in seventh, and Missouri S&T (221) in eighth. Truman State (245) and Rockhurst (310) were respectively ninth and 10th, while McKendree (319) followed in 11th and Missouri-St. Louis (356) claimed 12th. Rounding out the field of scoring teams was Maryville (366) and Quincy (432).
Individually, USI senior Jennifer Comastri crossed the line first in 21 minutes, 11.26 seconds, to become the seventh Eagle to be crowned a GLVC champion and first since 2016. Additionally, her time marked the eighth-fastest winning time in GLVC history and was an improvement from her fourth-place result the year before. At the conclusion of the GLVC Championship, Comastri was named GLVC Runner of the Year, while her teammate Cameron Hough (21:53.75) was named the league’s top newcomer for her fifth-place effort. USI head coach Mike Hillyard was honored by his peers as GLVC Coach of the Year for the 13th time.
Lewis enters as the highest ranked team, as the Flyers are 19th in the latest U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) national coaches' poll. Regionally, Lewis leads the league’s contingent at No. 3, followed by No. 9 Southwest Baptist.
While USI is no longer in the league, and several other top runners have graduated, Drury’s Elizabeth Stinson placed ninth last season in 22:04.79, while 2019 Freshman of the Year Tessa Valdivia of SBU also returns this weekend after a 13th-place effort in 2021 with a time of 22:11.47. Lewis’ Anna Kozak ran in last year’s Championship in a time of 22:18.77 for 17th place. The other top-20 All-Conference runner from last year that will be back in contention on Saturday is SBU’s Alexis Barber, who finished 19th last year in a time of 22:47.56. Barber was also selected as the GLVC Runner of the Week this season on Sept. 21.
On the men's side, Lewis repeated as GLVC Champions last year on its home course in Romeoville, Ill., to claim its 15th overall GLVC Championship. The Flyers totaled 42 points to edge Illinois Springfield (53) by nine points, denying the Prairie Stars their first league title. UIS snuck into the runner-up spot past third-place Southern Indiana (54) by a single point.
Drury (153) was a distant fourth, followed by Indianapolis (184) in fifth, and Missouri S&T (196) in sixth. Southwest Baptist (203) placed seventh, while Maryville () finished eighth, Lindenwood (215) claimed ninth, Truman State (262) was 10th, Missouri-St. Louis (292) placed 11th, Rockhurst (348) finished 12th, and Quincy (422) and McKendree (430) rounded out the scoring teams in the event.
UIS junior Blake Jones broke the tape first in an 8,000-meter time of 23 minutes, 49.65 seconds – just 3-seconds shy of the GLVC record – to repeat as the individual champion and set a new course record. His time was almost an entire minute faster than his winning effort in 2020. In addition to being named the GLVC Champion, Jones was honored as GLVC Runner of the Year. He is also the 13th runner in Conference history to win multiple cross country titles. The Prairie Stars also earned GLVC Freshman of the Year honors after Christopher Cherry finished 18th in 24:58.67 to lead all newcomers and earn All-GLVC distinction. Lewis head coach James Kearney was voted by his peers as GLVC Coach of the Year for the second-straight season.
Heading into the weekend, UIS is ranked 17th nationally in the USTFCCCA poll, while Lewis is receiving votes outside the top 30. In the Midwest Region, UIS is third and Lewis is seventh.
While Jones has graduated, Cherry, along with the 2020 Freshman of the Year, Anthony Farmer of Lewis, makes a return, following a third-place finish in 2021 in a time of 24:00.38. In addition, eight others of the 20 All-Conference honorees will be back to compete on Saturday, including UIS’s Cort Ross (24:11.98; fifth) and Wyatt McIntyre (24:24.43; seventh), Maryville’s Caleb Pyle (24:29.58, ninth), Lewis’ Anthony Pena (24:45.83, 14th), UIndy’s AJ Goecker (24:51.87, 15th), Missouri-St. Louis’ Jacob Warner (24:55.69, 16th), Lewis’ Daniel Arimi (24:58.02, 17th), and Drury’s William Kershaw (25:00.51; 19th). Ross and McIntyre both won two weekly honors this year.
For more information on this weekend’s GLVC Cross Country Championships, log on to
GLVCsports.com/2022cc. Live coverage can be found on
GLVCSN.com, the GLVCSN iOS and Android mobile apps, and GLVCSN OTT apps on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, and Android TV.