Senior Jorge Villanueva Posted the 13th-fastest 8-kilometer time in program history while finishing as the runner-up in Friday's Forester Invitational. The Lake Forest men and women each placed third out of five complete teams in the standings.
Villanueva's time of 26:13.5 was slightly more than 45 seconds behind the winner and the same amount of time passed before the third-place finisher in the race cross the line. It was the 13th-fastest clocking in team history, giving Villanueva five entries on the program's top 25 list.
Lake Forest also had the runner-up in the women's 6-kilometer race in sophomore Yaneli Guajardo and she finished less than seven seconds off the lead in 23:55.4. The gap between second and third was more than 30 seconds. The next Forester to cross the finish line was senior Emily Stauffer in 11th place out of 53 runners with a time of 25:44.4. Sophomore Molly Gniady was 18th in 26:29.0 and junior Estafania Ramirez 22nd in 26:58.3. Senior Senait Berhe rounded out the top five, placing 26th overall in 27:07.6.
The next Forester after Villanueva on the men's side was freshman Christian Reyes, whose first collegiate 8K time of 27:53.3 was good for eighth place in the 48-runner field. Senior Alphonse Wilson finished 13th in 28:20.6 and classmate Christian Aldana was the next runner to cross the finish line nearly 10 seconds later (28:30.3). Sam Barton, another senior, completed in the course in 28:33.5 and placed 17th.
The St. Norbert College women finished first as a team with 28 points, followed by Harper College with 44. The Foresters' 60 points were well ahead of fourth-place Illinois College (117) and fifth-place Indiana University Northwest (136). Lawrence University and Roosevelt University also attended the meet but had fewer than five runners. Lawrence won the men's race with 31 points, nine less than runner-up Harper. As in the women's team standings, Lake Forest was third with 54 points and fourth-place Illinois College was well back with 129, just three better than St. Norbert. Roosevelt and Indiana Northwest did not field complete teams.
The Foresters' next meet, Augustana College's Brissman-Lundeen Invitational, will take place next Friday beginning at 3:00 p.m.
