The Forester men's cross country team placed 20th and the women 21st in a 50-team field at Augustana College's Brissman-Lundeen Invitational on Friday. Lake Forest sophomore Jonathan Stern, freshman Jorge Villanueva, and junior Sintayehu Regassa finished in less than 27 minutes and posted 8-kilometer times that rank among the top 25 in program history.
Stern was the top runner on the men's team and junior Kristen Whitney led the women for the fourth time in as many meets this season. Stern's career-best time of 26:17.3 was good for 83rd place out of 602 finishers and ranks fourth in team annals. Whitney placed 66th out of 583 competitors and her 6-kilometer time of 24:01.1 ranks 19th in school history and gives her eight of the program's top 25 times.
Sophomore Alexia Leonardo was next for the Forester women in 126th place with a time of 24:46.3. Junior Abigail Toohey posted a 141st-place time of 24:53.5 and classmate Andrea Lorch crossed the finish line just five places and 2.1 seconds later. Sophomore Cassie Lira rounded out Lake Forest's top five in 203rd place with a time of 25:33.8.
Villanueva's 26:40.7 placed him 117th in the race and 12th in team history while Regassa was 135th overall and his 26:50.0 is the program's 19th-fastest time. Junior Rocco DiMatteo was 193rd in 27:18.6 and freshman Christian Aldana completed the course in 27:29.1 while placing 205th.
The meet was held at Saukie Golf Course, the site of the NCAA Division III Regional Meet on November 14. Ferris State University won the women's competition while a team from the University of Illinois took first place on the men's side.
The next meet on the Foresters' schedule is the Lamb-Kohawk Invitational on October 10. The meet will begin at 11:00 and will take place at Noelridge Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, site of the 2015 Midwest Conference Championships on October 31.
