Image courtesy of Illinois State Athletics
NORMAL, Ill. – Illinois State wrapped up its 2025 cross country season on the toughest stage in the country at the NCAA Midwest Regional in Stillwater, Oklahoma, where both the men and women delivered impressive season-concluding performances against a very talented Division I field. The women turned in one of their strongest team efforts of the year, finishing 12th overall and posting their best regional result since 2015. On the men’s side, the Redbirds placed 17th, powered by juniors stepping up when it mattered most.
Junior Nora Brady, who competed at Regionals for the first time at the division one level, once again led the charge with a 46th-place finish, showing the same consistency that defined her breakout season. Right behind her was senior Maggie Reed, who saved her best regional race for last, placing 56th in a career-best postseason performance. Freshman Pauline Schedler looked like a veteran, running 67th in her regional debut. Sophomores Astrid Van Breedam (89th) and Colleen Zeibert (131st) closed out the scoring for ISU, helping secure a finish that topped several Power Five programs.
Blake Oleson capped his season with a career-best regional result, crossing 63rd and showing major improvement from a year ago. Junior transfer Cayde de Waal finished in 87th in his first-ever regional appearance. Sophomore Will Gelon came in 91st, and junior Kane Shields came in 92nd. Freshman Logan Scott delivered a massive PR in 111th as the team’s fifth scorer.
The finish in Stillwater capped off a season that felt like the start of something new for Illinois State, with new faces through transfers and recruitments, and a young roster figuring out its identity one race at a time.
The tone shifted back in October at the Bradley Pink Classic, where both squads quietly made a statement by placing sixth in fields stacked with more than 20 teams. That meet also gave the program one of its biggest highlights of the year: Nora Brady’s school-record 6k, breaking Mattison Plummer’s MVC championship mark by two seconds. It was the first real sign that this group, even after graduating key athletes, wasn’t taking a step back; they were evolving.
Two weeks later, at the Missouri Valley Championships, the Redbirds showed that the Pink Classic wasn’t a fluke. The women battled their way to third, pushed by Brady’s seventh-place finish and her spots on the All-Valley Team and the Women’s Elite 18. Freshman Pauline Schedler added a 12th-place run and All-Valley Honorable Mention honors, a big step in her first MVC season. The men, meanwhile, held strong for fourth behind Julian Baker’s ninth-place All-Valley performance.
What followed was a fast turnaround into championship-season mode. Bovee talked often about that mental reset, the need to regroup after big meets, reflect, and then get right back into heavy training. And to his credit, the team responded. He said those early-week sessions after MVCs were “as good as we’ve looked all year,” even if everyone wasn’t firing at the same level just yet.
The lead-up to Regionals came with plenty of honesty, too. Bovee acknowledged that the Midwest is one of the most competitive regions in the NCAA, and going from a conference field of around 90 runners to a regional field of more than 300 would demand another level of toughness, both mentally and physically. But he also emphasized that their consistency, depth, and youth were the team’s strengths.
With the XC season over and the beginning of Indoor Track and Field just around the corner, Coach Bovee states that fans should buy in; the culture is where it needs to be, and the future? “It looks really good.”
The Redbird Track and Field team will begin their indoor action on December 6th at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Opener in Boston, Massachusetts.
For all things Redbird athletics, stay tuned to wznd.com.