This past weekend, the University of Illinois Cross Country team traveled to Rock Island, IL to participate in the Brissman-Lundeen Invitational, hosted by Augustana College. The men’s team finish 6th out of 33 teams and the women’s team finished 9th out of 33 teams.
Jim Riddle led the men’s team, finishing 8th in a time of 25:32.9. Jared Ripoli continued to build on an outstanding freshman year, running 26:09.4 to finish 28th, while sophomore Eric De Guevara ran 26:14.6, finishing 36th. Rounding out the top five were seniors Evan White (45th, 26:26.3) and Matt Birkel (59th, 26:35.2).
On the women’s side, Megan McGreal was the first Illini finisher, navigating the 6K course in a time of 23:40.3, to finish 35th. Senior Emma Grimes was close behind with a time of 24:01.2, good enough for 45th. Seniors Beth McGreal and Michelle Turner finished 72nd (24:33.5) and 84th (24:40.8) respectively, while freshman Tiffany Lam made her top seven debut, running 24:29.1, taking 95th place, and placing 5th for the team. Emma Burkhardt (124th, 25:19.6) was the second new addition to the women’s top seven.
This Friday, the Illinois Cross Country team will send a partial squad on both the men and women’s sides to compete at the Illinois Wesleyan Titan Invitational at Maxwell Park in Normal, IL, while the remainder of the squad will compete at the Lucian Rosa Invitational hosted by the University of Wisconsin at Parkside on October 12th.