SAVOY -- The Illinois men's and women's cross country teams ran their first home meet of the season, hosting the Illini Invitational at the UI Orange and Blue golf course in Savoy, IL.

The men placed second, scoring 45 team points. Illinois State won race with 18 points. The lllini were led by seniors Mike Lucchesi and Ryan Eason. Lucchesi ran to a sixth place finish in a time of 25:08.79 over the 8-K course. Eason was right behind, placing seventh in 25:14.32. Senior Dan Horyn (9th, 25:25.22), freshman Adam Palumbo (25:31.88) and junior Caleb Grinter (12th, 25:3962) rounded out the scoring for the Illini.

"Our team split was good," Head Coach Gary Wieneke said. "We ran a gutsy race. There was great improvement from last week to this week." The men will run tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. at the Alumni Meet at South Farms.

The women also placed second in their race. Sophomore Celi Williams ran a 12-second personal best today, placing fifth overall in a time of 17:45.34 over the 5-K. Fellow sophomore Amber Hunt slashed her personal best by 39 seconds, running seventh overall in time of 17:52.61. The freshman continued to run well for Illinois as Breanna Wabick (12th, 18:18.51), Becky Bullard (13th, 18:20.35) and Katie Hartmann (15th, 18:22.90) completed the scoring for the Illini.

"I'm delighted the way the team competed today," coach Michelle Byrne said. "We had a definite strategy today. Celi really showed herself well today and the team really packed in it. We had only 31 seconds separating the top 5 runners, which was our goal."

Men's Team Scores

  1. Illinois State Univ
            1    2    3    4    8  (10) (17)    =    18
  2. University of Illinois
            6    7    9   11   12  (13) (14)    =   45
  3. Bradley Univ
            5   20   22   25   31               =   103
  4. Eastern Ill Univ
           16   18   21   23   30               =   108
  5. SIUE
           15   19   24   26   27  (28) (29)    =   111

Women's Team Scores

  1. Wisconsin
            1    2    3    4    6   (8)  (9)    =    16
  2. University of Illinois
            5    7   10   11   12  (13) (14)    =    45
  3. Eastern Ill Univ
           16   19   20   22   24  (28) (29)    =   101
  4. Bradley Univ
           17   21   23   25   26  (34) (37)    =   112
  5. SIUE
           18   27   31   32   33  (36) (38)    =   141
  6. Illinois State Univ
           15   30   35   39   40  (41) (42)    =   159