Oct. 14, 2011

Results

MADISON, Wis. - The Fighting Illini men's cross country team placed 26th at the Wisconsin adidas Invitational on Friday. The Orange and Blue, who faced their toughest competition of the season, finished ahead of three Big Ten squads and were led by junior Jordan Hebert for the second time in his career.

"I'm frustrated for these guys," cross country coach Gavin Kennedy said. "They've done everything I've asked of them over the past couple weeks getting ready for this meet, so it's frustrating to have the performance we did today. We will just need to get the guys' legs fresh again and focus on the Big Ten Championship meet in two weeks."

Hebert led the Illini and placed 49th overall with an 8K time of 24:31, which is three seconds behind his previous best. The Elmhurst, Ill., native improved upon his previous performances at the meet after finishing 117th in 2010 and 102nd in 2009. Following Hebert and making his season debut was Jim Riddle, who came in 82nd overall with a time of 24:43.

"I was really pleased with Jordan's performance today," Kennedy said. "He put himself in a position where he was going to be successful and he fought through the entire race."

Rounding out the Illini scoring were seniors Colin Mickow (25:02) in 136th, Dan Kremske (25:07) in 147th and Chris DeSilva (25:37) in 205th.

The Illini also had two runners competing in the `B' race at the Invitational, as junior Phil Pompei (ninth place) and freshman Mark Donohue (37th) both ran season-best 8K times of 25:16 and 25:54, respectively.

Lawi Lalang from Arizona took the individual title with a time of 23:10 while the Wisconsin Badgers won the overall team title with 66 points.

The Orange and Blue will be home next weekend as they welcome cross country teams to the Illini Open on Friday, Oct. 21 at the UI Arboretum at 4:45 p.m. CT before hosting the Big Ten Championships on Sunday, Oct. 30. For more information on the Big Ten Championships, visit the championships central page HERE