Cross Country

Northwestern took home third in the team standings at the Illini Open in Urbana on Saturday.

The Wildcats finished with 79 points from their scorers, putting them behind the host Illinois, which scored 25 points, and Bradley, which scored 78 points. NU finished ahead of a squad from Big Ten rival Purdue as well as contingents from Butler, Loyola and Eastern Illinois.

The meet was NU’s last event before the beginning of the championship season. It was a step down from the size and depth of competition of last week’s Pre-Nationals Invitational. Many of the Cats’ top runners, such as sophomore Jena Pianin, were withheld from the race in anticipation of next week’s Big Ten Championships.

However, those runners who did participate in the race did so in hopes of claiming a spot in the field at the Big Ten Championships with an impressive showing at the final regular-season meet of the year.

In a field of 77 runners and a 5K course, junior Rachel Weathered led the way for the Cats with a time of 18 minutes and 53.8 seconds, good for an 11th-place finish. It was the second time this season that Weathered paced NU in a 5K race, just as she did in the Lucian Rosa Invitational two weeks prior.

Junior Renee Wellman was not far behind, finishing in 18 minutes and 56 seconds and taking 14th-place individually.

Junior Megan O’Brien and sophomore Ellen Schmitz cooperated throughout the race and finished in 19 minutes and 3.3 seconds and 19 minutes and 3.5 seconds, respectively, times which were good for 18th- and 19th-place finishes.

Freshman Sara Coffey rounded out the scorers for the Cats with a 22nd-place individual finish and a time of 19 minutes and 9.2 seconds. Junior Mallory Abel and senior Elizabeth Fierro finished in 32nd place and 41st place, respectively.

Each runner will hope that her final performance was enough to keep her in the conversation as NU coach April Likhite sets the team’s lineup for the upcoming conference meet.

The Cats’ top runners will be back in action Nov. 2, as the team travels to Iowa City, Iowa, to compete in the 2014 Big Ten Championships.

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