Sophomore Yaneli Guajardo and senior Jorge Villanueva posted top-10 finishes on Saturday as the Forester cross country team began its season in Green Bay, Wisconsin, at St. Norbert College's Tom Barry Invitational. The Lake Forest women placed fourth in the team standings and the men fifth.
Villanueva turned in Lake Forest's top performance of the day with a runner-up finish in the men's 4-mile race, which included 89 competitors. His time of 20:44.7 was just 11 seconds behind the winner and 40 ahead of the next runner to cross the line. Next for the Foresters was fellow senior Christian Aldana, who placed 15th in 22:11.7. Freshmen Christian Reyes and Martin Carter followed in 23rd (22:48.9) and 37th (23:33.5), respectively, in their first collegiate meet. Senior Alphonse Wilson rounded out the team's top five in 46th place with a time of 24:00.1.
Guajardo placed seventh out of 121 runners in the women's 5K with a time of 20:16.6 on the warm, humid day. Emily Staufer began her senior season with a 21:48.3, which was good for 30th place. Sophomore Molly Gniady was 37th in 22:12.4 and classmate Audrey Paglia 43rd with a time of 22:37.0. Another sophomore, Sadaf Naushad, was fifth on the team and 53rd overall in 23:33.9.
The St. Norbert women (28 points) and men (51) won the meet and Carroll University was second in the standings with 34 points in the women's race and 73 in the men's. The Forester women tallied 124 points to place fourth out of 11 complete teams and the men totaled 121 points and was fifth out of nine.
After a weekend off from competition, Lake Forest will host the Forester Invitational on Friday, September 14.
