Despite hot and humid conditions, the Illinois Club Cross Country team had many impressive performances in both the men”s and women”s races at the Eastern Illinois University Walt Crawford Invitational, this past Friday.
On the men”s side, Joe Zeller ran a 50 second personal record to finish as the team”s first runner, placing 19th over all in a time of 26:42.44. The remainder of the scoring runners consisted of top freshman Jared Ripoli (23rd, 26:52.95), sophomore Eric De Guevara (24th, 26:53.64), and seniors Matt Birkel (25th, 26:54.23) and Evan White (30th, 27:05.52). Other outstanding performances included strong 8k debuts by Jack Morrissey, Michael Giberson, and many other club newcomers, and a minute PR by none other than Kevin Hearne.
For the women, Kelsey Kilrea opened her season with a time of 19:31.71 for the 5-kilometer race, good enough for 29th over all. Returning runners Michelle Turner (46th, 20:06.73), Megan McGreal (47th, 20:07.30), Emma Grimes (52nd, 20:13.58), and Jo Dibuz (20:18.38) rounded out the scoring 5. Hannah Smith (70th, 21:05.48) was the top freshman finisher for the team, as the women had a total of 12 runners below 22 minutes.
There were too many performances to highlight! The Illinois Cross Country Club team returns to action on September 27th at the Brissman-Lundeen Invitational.
Full Results
