ELSAH, Ill. – McKendree University's men's and women's cross country team will compete on Saturday, Nov. 5 in the 2022 Great Lakes Valley Conference Championships, which this year is being held here at the Principia College North Farm Cross Country Course and hosted by McKendree University.

For just the third time – and at consecutive events – the GLVC Cross Country Championships will be streamed live on the GLVC Sports Network (GLVCSN).

The 2022 championships meet will open with the 44th annual men's 8,000-meter run at 10:30 a.m., followed by the 39th annual women's 6,000-meter run scheduled to start at 11:30 a.m.

The top placing men's and women's teams will be named the 2022 GLVC Champion, respectively. In addition, the Top 20 individual finishers in both the men's and women's races will be named All-GLVC selections, and the winner of each will earn GLVC Runner of the Year honors. The top-finishing freshman on both the men's and women's race will garner GLVC Freshman of the Year accolades.

McKendree's men's team will be by freshman John Bush (Ballwin, Mo./Marquette) as Bush was been the team's top finisher in four of its five regular season meets. Freshman Byron Jones (Shiloh, Ill./Belleville East) was the top Bearcat finisher as the final regular season meet – Bradley Pink Classic – on Oct. 14.

Along with Bush and Jones, the other Bearcats running on Saturday are junior Oshawi Burgher (Kingston, Jamaica/Alderson Broaddus), junior Seth Kasinger (Pekin, Ill./Pekin Community), sophomore Caleb Kickham (O'Fallon, Mo./Fort Zumwalt West), sophomore Braden Voss (Belleville, Ill./Althoff Catholic) and freshman Blake Westrater (O'Fallon, Ill./O'Fallon Township).

The highest team finish for the men's team was in 2012 when the team placed sixth and in 2020 when the team placed fifth in the "B" race. The Bearcats will look to place a runner in the Top 20, the last time a Bearcat men's runner placed in the Top 15 was in 2013 when Blake Delong finished fourth overall.

On the women's side, sophomore Reagan Lucas (Freeburg, Ill./Freeburg) and freshman Sophia Paschal (Godfrey, Ill./Alton) will lead the way for the Bearcats as they each were the top finisher for McKendree in two meets each, while a third runner, freshman Lacey Laxton (Coal Valley, Ill./Geneseo) was the top Bearcat finisher at the McKendree Bearcat XC Classic. Lucas was the top Bearcat runner at the Border War XC Championships and the Bradley Pink Classic, while Paschal was the top Bearcat runner at the Redhawks XC Invitational and the Bradley University Intercollegiate.

Along with Lucas, Paschal and Laxton, the other Bearcat women competing on Saturday are freshman Azia Douglas (Cahokia Heights, Ill./Althoff Catholic), freshman Lorelei Harness (Collinsville, Ill./Collinsville), freshman Tori King (Belleville, Ill./Belleville West) and freshman Colleen Zinke (Maryville, Ill./Collinsville).

The highest team finish for the women's team was in 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2018 when they finished ninth and in 2020 when they finished third in the "B" race. The Bearcats will look to have a Top 15 finisher as the last member of the women's team to place in the Top 15 was Quincy McSweeney when she placed ninth in 2018.

At last year's GLVC Championships, the top finisher for the Bearcat women was graduate student Kayla Tirey (Collinsville, Ill./Collinsville) as she run a 6K time of 23:56.2 to finish in 55th place, while the top finisher for the Bearcat men was Kasinger, who ran an 8K time of 28:37.82 to finish in 130th place overall.

On the men's side, Lewis will look to defend their crown as they took home their 15th overall GLVC title in men's cross country last season on their home course, while former member Southern Indiana captured the women's title last season for a league record 14th time.

The men's individual champion last season was Southern Indiana's Blake Jones as he ran an 8K time of 23 minutes, 49.65 seconds, which was just three seconds shy of the GLVC record to repeat as the champion. Meanwhile on the women's side, USI's Jennifer Comastri took home first place as she ran a 6K time of 21 minutes, 11.26 seconds to become the seventh USI runner to be crowned a GLVC Champion.