THIS WEEK IN PEACOCK WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY… The Peacocks begin their 2023 season in-state at Mount Mercy, where they'll be competing in the Corridor XC Clash. The event will take place on Friday, Sep. 1 and will be the first of four regular-season cross country meets for Upper Iowa.
RUNNING IT BACK... UIU competed in six meets during the 2022 season, which was highlighted by a seventh place finish out of 20 teams at Mount Mercy, for the Seminole Valley Stampede. Their first meet also saw them finish sixth out of seven teams at Luther College, before ending the season in 31
st place out of 35 teams at the NCAA Central Regional Championships. Head Coach
Nate Rucker is back for his 11
th season with UIU and will have a lot of familiar faces to work with this season.
RETURNING RUNNERS… Four members of the Peacock women's cross country team return from last season, highlighted by senior
Jadyn Schultz who had a team best 20:54 in the 5K and 26:25 in the 6K.
Delaney Miller returns for her senior season, and is ready to be back on the course after missing nearly the entire season due to injury. Rounding out UIU's roster are sophomores
Mackenzie Rader and
Eryn Sabelka. Rader competed in five meets last season, running an average time of 26:53 in the 6K, highlighted by a career best of 26:02 at the NCAA D2 Central Regional. Sabelka competed in five meets as well, running an average time of 26:28 in the 6K, highlighted by a career best of 25:18 at the Jim Drews/Tori Neubauer Invite.
GLVC PRESEASON COACHES' POLL… Upper Iowa was picked to finish thirteenth in the GLVC, where they trail William Jewell, and rank ahead of Quincy. The poll is highlighted by defending conference-tournament champions Lewis, who received all 13 first place votes they were eligible for. They are followed by reigning GLVC Championship runners-up in Southwest Baptist as well as Drury, who received the final first place vote.
MORE ABOUT THE MUSTANGS… The Corridor XC Clash will be held in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at Seminole Valley Park. Mount Mercy will be hosting this event for the second straight season. They are coming off a first-place finish out of four teams who participated in the 2022 meet. Mount Mercy returns numerous sophomores and juniors from last season, highlighted by the return of junior, J'Lyn Knutson. During her 2022 campaign, Knutson was an All-Heart of America Athletic Conference first team selection, NAIA Scholar-Athlete, Heart of America Scholar-Athlete, and NAIA National qualifier.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS… Following their opening meet, the Peacocks will travel to Luther College in Decorah, Iowa on Saturday, Sep. 9 to compete in the All-American Invitational for the third year in a row.
