Women 5th, Men 10th At Illinois Intercollegiate

NORMAL, Ill. - Eastern Illinois women's cross country placed fifth in a very strong field at Friday evening's Illinois Intercollegiate while the men's team placed 10th in a forty team field. The meet included several schools ranked in the NCAA Regional rankings as Northwestern won the women's race and Illinois the men's race. 

Olivia Klaus led the women's seven runners placing 13th with a 5K time of 18:34. Erika Ramos and Gabriela Duenas each posted a time of 18:49 with Ramos crossing in 23rd and Duenas in 24th. Brittany Arthur was 44th at 19:08 and Megan Gingerich rounded out the scored entries in 52nd at 19:14. EIU's additional two runners were Caitlin Napoleoni in 56th at 19:16 and Casey Harms in 100th at 20:06. 

Northwestern took overall team honors followed by Illinois State. The Panthers scored 144 points to place fifth. Audrey Huth of Northwestern led a 1,2 Wildcat finish winning the event in a time of 17:35. 

On the men's side EIU was led by Connor Kustief with an 8K time of 26:01 which landed him in 32nd. Bradley LaRocque was just behind placing 37th at 26:05. Danny Delaney, Ryan Ballard and Matt Dettloff rounded out the top five EIU finishers. Delaney was 74th with a time of 26:37 while Ballard was 80th at 26:46 and Dettloff 87th at 26:54. Wes Sheldon and Jason Springer closed out the seven scored runners with Sheldon 99th at 27:02 and Springer 107th at 27:14. 

Michael Spain of North Central won the overall race at 24:23 as North Central was the runner-up behind Illinois on the men's side. EIU was 10th with 251 points.