LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Running against a field that featured six ranked teams, the Illinois men's cross country team set three personal-record performances at the Greater Louisville Classic, highlighted by sophomore Jon Davis timing the fourth-fastest 8,000-meter race in Illinois history. Clocking 23:43.14, Davis placed 12th overall to lead the 19th-ranked Illini to a fifth-place finish, while top-ranked Northern Arizona won the team competition with 19 points.
"I thought the majority of our guys had solid days," said head coach Jake Stewart. "I think the team had a day that we can be proud of. For the guys that raced last week in Boston, I think there were some bright spots; and I also think there were some flatness involved with their race today. I don't know if we felt like we had an exceptional day, but we still battled and got a lot of positive things that we can build off of heading into the next two weeks."
A week after finishing second behind teammate Jesse Reiser in the Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown, Davis cut 30 seconds off last weeks' time (24:13) to lead the Illini on Saturday. Davis' time of 24:43.14 is the fastest 8,000 meters by an Illini since Dylan Lafond set the school record (23:22.4) at 2015 Big Ten Championships in Chicago and the fourth-fastest overall.
"The biggest takeaway for Jon is that he's never been as assertive in the early stages of a race like he was today," Stewart said of the sophomore. "[The race] went out really fast and he was in the mix from the get go, and he's never done that. So, I think that was a learning experience for him in what he needs to be prepared for moving forward. I think he's going to be really well prepared for what lies ahead because of it, and I don't necessarily know if he had his best performance which I think is a very positive quality about today's race."
Davis' time ranks third in school history among 8,000-meter races, as Ty Wolf's time of 23:43.0 was clocked on his way to 10,000 meters at the 1984 NCAA District IV Meet. Trent Hoerr ranks second on the Illinois list with his 23:39.0 run in 2007 at Pre-Nationals.
Running second for the Illini in Louisville was junior Jesse Reiser, as the reigning Big Ten Athlete of the Week duplicated his time from last weekend with his second 24:12 performance in as many weeks. The 24:12 was good for a 25th-place finish and ties the second-best 8,000-meter mark of his career.
"He was very consistent in how he approached the race, how competitive he wanted to be and how assertive he wanted to be," Stewart said of Reiser's race. "I think Jesse didn't have the day he wanted to have, but, by no means, was that a result of what he tried to get done. I think he didn't totally bounce back from a week ago. When you look at his day not being all that he wanted, he still had a pretty good day."
A pair of redshirt juniors ran third and fourth for the Illini, as Zack Smith finished 26th with a personal-best time of 24:13.44 and Billy Magnesen clocked 24:23.50 to place 36th. The personal-best performance by Smith was a 20-second improvement over his previous record of 24:33.7 at the 2015 Big Ten Championships, while Magnesen has lowered his time from his previous race each time out this season.
"Zack Smith and Billy Magnesen are having exceptional falls," said Stewart. "Those two guys have been a huge part of what we're doing. I'm so pleased with every aspect of their season to this point. Zack is racing with a ton of confidence and assertiveness, and Billy is the same way. Every week they are allowing themselves to build off the previous week, and I fully expect that to continue. For those two to run the way they did shows just how engaged they are and how determined they are."
Concluding the five scorers for Coach Stewart on Saturday morning was graduate student Luke Brahm. Racing for the second time this season, and the first since the season-opener at Eastern Illinois, Brahm clocked 24:38.01, 52nd overall, to place fifth for the Illini. The time betters his season-opening performance of 25:37.15 by nearly a minute.
"Luke Brahm had a great day," said Stewart. "Stepping up to the 8,000-meter distance, he had a couple decisions in the middle of the race where it could have gone either way and he buckled down and came up huge for us as our fifth guy."
Three other Illini finished in under 25 minutes for the Orange and Blue, as redshirt sophomore Zach Dale (24:47.41) placed 64th, redshirt senior Alex Gold (24:49.12) took 69th place and freshman Brayden Hamblen (24:50.97) finished 75th.
"Alex [Gold] and Brayden [Hamblen] made nice steps forward for us today," Stewart said. "Those guys didn't have the early races that they wanted to have. For Brayden, there's such a learning curve with the 8,000-meter distance and he took a nice step forward today and it will allow him to relax knowing he can race at a high level. Gold is just consistence. He keeps chipping away and moved forward through the late stages of the race."
Up next, the Illini will compete in their final road meet of the regular season in two weeks at the Ed Nuttycombe Invite on Friday, October 13. Held in Madison, Wisconsin, the meet begins at 11am central time and can be streamed live through a subscription to FloTrack.
For complete coverage of Fighting Illini cross country, visit FightingIllini.com, follow the Illini on Twitter (@IlliniMXC and @IlliniWXC) and Instagram (@IlliniMXC and @IlliniWXC) and like Fighting Illini Men's Cross Country and Fighting Illini Women's Cross Country on Facebook.
Illinois Individual Results (Complete Results):
12. Jon Davis, 23:43.14
25. Jesse Reiser, 24:12.02
26. Zack Smith, 24:13.44
36. Billy Magnesen, 24:23.50
52. Luke Brahm, 24:38.01
64. Zach Dale, 24:47.41
69. Alex Gold, 24:49.12
75. Brayden Hamblen, 24:50.97
111. Caleb Hummer, 25:13.16
148. Joe Cowlin, 25:37.62
168. Luke Schroer, 25:55.35
247. Denis O'Callaghan, 27:39.32
Team Scores:
- Northern Arizona – 19
- Furman – 74
- Virginia Tech – 112
- Boise State – 127
- Illinois – 141
- Middle Tennessee St. – 188
- Purdue – 189
- Wisconsin – 193
- Kentucky – 249
- Auburn – 300
