Sept. 17, 2010

Illinois Intercollegiate Results | Photo Gallery

NORMAL, Ill. - The Fighting Illini men's cross country team took the Illinois Intercollegiate title Friday against a field of 39 competing squads. The Illini finished with a team total of 25 points, as eight of the top 13 overall finishers sported orange and blue.

"We won pretty handily," cross country coach Wendel McRaven said. "It was a solid effort. We are continuing to shake off a little rust, and it's still early in September so the guys are running on tired legs. I felt like we could have done a little bit better job of running in the group, but that's just going to come with race experience."

Junior Colin Mickow led the way for the Illini and finished second overall, with a personal-best 8K time of 24:26. Junior Dan Kremske also turned in a personal-best time of 24:39 and placed third overall, as the pair of juniors led the Orange and Blue to victory for the second-straight meet. Fellow junior Jim Riddle made his season debut and finished three spots later, coming in sixth overall (25:00).

"Colin just got outkicked in the last 200 meters, but he definitely ran a solid race," McRaven said. "Colin and Dan did a good job of running together. It also was a nice season opener for Jim and good to get him back in the lineup."

Junior Nathan Bohne (25:13) and sophomore Jordan Hebert (25:24) finished ninth and 10th, respectively, with personal best times to round out the Illini scoring. As a team, Illinois earned points of two, three, five, seven and eight from its top-five finishers.

The next three spots were also filed by Illini, with junior Nathan Troester (25:27) in 11th followed by juniors Chris DeSilva (25:30) and Kyle Engnell (25:34), who made their season debuts, in 12th and 13th.

Michael Spain from North Central captured the individual title with a time of 24:23, three seconds ahead of Mickow.

The Orange and Blue will take a weekend off before heading to Madison, Wis., for the Wisconsin adidas Invitational on Oct. 2.

ILLINOIS RESULTS
2. Colin Mickow 24:26
3. Dan Kremske 24:39
6. Jim Riddle 25:00
9. Nathan Bohne 25:13
10. Jordan Hebert 25:24
11. Nathan Troester 25:27
12. Chris DeSilva 25:30
13. Kyle Engnell 25:34
23. Phil Pompei 25:47
53. Drew Bell (unattached) 26:10

Open Race:
Mark Donohue (unattached) 26:10
Jordan Lagomarcino (unattached) 27:26
Manu Kumar (unattached) 28:14

TEAM RESULTS (Top 5)
1. ILLINOIS 25
2. North Central 51
3. Illinois-Chicago 132
4. Augustana 151
5. Illinois State 175