One Big Step

The Roosevelt men's and women's cross-country teams didn't win or even finish in the top 10 of their first meets Sept. 3 at the Elmhurst Earlybird Invitational.

But they did do a little something else: make school history.

In the first intercollegiate athletics event for the school since 1989 – and the first-ever female athletics event – the women finished 13th out of 14 teams.

The men, meanwhile, in the first race by a men's cross-country team, finished 14th out of 17 teams.

Coach Kevin Licht, who runs both teams, left the historical race pleased and more concerned with improvement in meets in the future.

"Our focus from day one has been the end of the season," he said.

Neither of the teams – or any of the fiver other university teams returning this year – can compete in postseason conference or national meets or tournaments, leaving Licht looking toward meets latter in the year as a real barometer as to how much progress his teams have made.

"We got the feedback we needed from this race," he said.

Junior Katie Siedschlag led the women Lakers, the school's first-ever female athletics team, with an 18:28.8 finish in the 4,000-meter race, good enough for a 94th-place finish out of 156 runners.

It was her first race since her freshman year at Greenville College downstate, and she was followed by freshmen Cori Glacalone and Avery Ash, sophomore Amanda Warren and junior Joline Reyes, who all finished in less than 24 minutes in their first-ever college race.

Each of his women, Licht said, "ran how they were supposed to and didn't get in over their heads."

 And they did have one small victory – besides, of course, being the first female athletes to compete at the school: they beat fellow Loop school Robert Morris.

"To know that we're better than a conference team is good," Licht said.

His top-three finishers also performed better than three Trinity International runners. Trinity International is in a similar situation as Roosevelt, having just started up a cross-country team this year.

"So that's another small victory," Licht said.

In the first-ever performance by a university men's cross-country team, freshman Michael Woldeyesus led the men with a 20:59.7 finish, earning a 76th-place finish out of 207 runners.

Freshmen Ryan Gunn, Curtis O'Dwyer and J'Ron Anderson and junior Rory Smith finished in less than 27 minutes, but it was their disapproval of their bottom-half finish as a team that left Licht feeling good.

"A competitive person who gets beat can be very dangerous," he said.

Both teams will compete in the Aurora Invitational Sept. 10 at Oakhurst Forest Preserve, and Licht emphasized that his focus will be on pace.

"You don't wanna throw them to the wolves and say, ‘Good luck,'" he said.