The Lake Forest College women's cross country team finished eighth and the men 11th at Wheaton College's Gil Dodds Invitational on Saturday. Junior Kristen Whitney led the women's squad and now owns seven of the program's 25 fastest 6-kilometer times.
Whitney completed the course in 24 minutes and six seconds, which ranks 24th in team annals. That time was good for 28th place in the field of 200 runners. Fellow junior Andrea Lorch was next on the tema in 54th place with a time of 24:40 and sophomore Cassie Lira crossed the line five places and 11 seconds later. Sophomore Alexia Leonardo finished 80th in 25:28 and junior Abigail Toohey rounded out the team's top five in 89th place with a time of 25:46.
Running together by design in what head coach Dan Simpson termed a "controlled progression run ending in threshhold," the first four runners on the men's team finished within a second of one another, beginning with sophomore Jonathan Stern in 93rd place with a time of 28:54. He was followed, in order, by freshman Jorge Villanueva and juniors Rocco DiMatteo and Sintayehu Regassa. Junior Mansur Soeleman was just off the pace in 107th place with a time of 29:16.
Washington University St. Louis finished first and the University of Chicago was second in both the women's and men's team standings.
The Foresters will preview the NCAA Division III Midwest Regional course at next Friday's Brissman-Lundeen Invitational, which will be hosted by Augustana University at Saukie Golf Course in Rock Island, Illinois. The meet will begin at 5:00 p.m.
