Kristen Whitney and Jorge Villanueva ran the fastest times in program history for the Lake Forest College cross country teams at the NCAA Division III Midwest Regional Meet in Rock Island, Illinois, on Saturday. The Forester women placed 15th and the men 18th in the 40-team field.
Whitney, a junior, broke her own 6-kilometer school record with a time of 22:49.7. She placed 57th out of 271 finishers overall and now owns five of the top seven times in team annals. Sophomore Cassie Lira was the next Forester to cross the line and her 73rd-place time of 23:01.9 ranks fourth in school history. Junior Andrea Lorch finished just two places behind Lira and her 23:10.3 is the sixth-fastest mark in program history. Sophomore Alexia Leonardo added another performance to the list, completing the race in 23:52.7 and in 123rd place. Her time ranks 21st in team history. Junior Abigail Toohey rounded out Lake Forest's top five in 164th place with a time of 24:37.0.
The Forester women finished ahead of seven of the other eight Midwest Conference schools at the meet, just ahead of Monmouth College. Washington University-St. Louis was the overall winner.
Four Lake Forest men made new entries on the program's top-25 list, led by Villanueva's school record 26:05.4, which was 4.3 seconds faster then the previous mark set by current junior Mansur Soeleman at last year's regional meet. Villanueva, a freshman, finished 83rd in Saturday's 260-runner field, one place and just three-tenths of a second ahead of junior Sintayehu Regassa, who now owns the second-best time in team history. Sophomore Jonathan Stern was 109th overall and his time of 26:30.6 ranks 10th in school history while junior Rocco DiMatteo's 117th-place time of 26:35.2 is 14th in team annals. Junior Steve Auman was 134th in 26:53.1 as the Foresters had five runners finish in less than 27 minutes for just the second time in program history.
Lake Forest had the MWC's top men's team in the meet as the Foresters' finished one place ahead of Lawrence University. The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire placed first overall.
It was the final meet of the year for Lake Forest. Looking ahead to next year, the Foresters will not lose anyone who appeared in a race this season to graduation.
