The Illinois Wesleyan women’s and men’s cross country teams ran in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Championship on Saturday, Oct. 30. The women’s team brought home fourth place in their 6K while the men’s team finished the 8K in eighth.
The senior duo of Lexie Dorsey and Rebekah Harden have consistently led the Titans to success this season.
Dorsey broke the Top-10 individual finishes, taking the team-high of ninth place with a time of 22:56.7. Behind her was Harden, who clocked in at 23:09.4 and nabbed 14th place.
Dorsey and Harden’s times landed them both in the Top-15 and qualified them for the All-CCIW team.
The Titans saw two additional Top-25 finishes from senior Jenna Mirande and freshman Amanda Wilson, who ran home with 22nd and 25th respectively.
Mirande clocked in at 23:40.4, followed closely by Wilson at 23:52.1.
As predicted in last week’s CCIW predictive poll, Elmhurst took home the gold for the women with 30 points and a second place individual finisher.
Trailing Elmhurst was Wheaton with 75 points and North Central with 92. Illinois Wesleyan’s 108 points put them just ahead of Millikin, who rounded out the Top-Five with 127.
The men’s team did not fare as well in their 8K championship race, finishing in eighth place out of nine. But, the day was not a total bust as two Titans finished in the Top-35 individually.
Junior J.D. Barrett was the first Titan to cross the finish line with a time of 26:32.3 and just barely missed the Top-25. Behind Barrett’s 26th place finish was freshman Nick Fisch with a 26:51.5 clip that secured him 35th place.
Junior Noah Smith also made the Top-50, clocking 27:25.6 and grabbing 48th place.
The North Central Cardinals took home first place in the championships for the 47th consecutive year, flying home with an impressive 18 points.
Behind NCC was Augustana with 75 points. Carthage and Millikin tied for third place with 86 points and Carroll closed out the Top-Five with 136.
Illinois Wesleyan finished with 211 points, just ahead of ninth-placing North Park with 262.
The Titan women’s and men’s cross country teams will run again on Saturday, Nov. 13 in the NCAA Midwest Regional competition.