Sept. 28, 2012

ND Invite Results

South Bend, Ind. -- The Fighting Illini men's cross country team placed 14th at the Notre Dame Invitational on Friday. The Orange and Blue, who faced their toughest competition of the season, were led by senior Hunter Mickowin his season opener.

"I was pleased with both Hunter and Jannis' performances to open their season," head coach Jake Stewartsaid. "They showed poised and looked good throughout the entire race. They moved well and what is what we were looking for them to do. They both didn't settle and we can take a lot from their performance."

Mickow led the Illini and placed 24th overall with a five mile time of 24:13, a distance ran competitively for the first time by many. Following Mickow and making his season debut was Jannis Topfer, who came in 27th overall, shortly behind his teammate with a time of 24:17.

Finishing third and fourth for the Illini were Tommy King with a time of 24:31 and Ian Barnett who notched a time of 24:49 to cover the five mile course. Rounding out the squad was Paul Zeman (25:26) in 125th, Sam Telfer (25:31) in 130th and Jordan Hebert(26:57) in 161st.

"Tommy ran really aggressively," Stewart said. "He ran a good race, however there are certainly a lot of things to learn from and it's up to us to get better. For a majority of our group, it was a race environment that was a new experience. We have to take what happened here and use it to better prepare us for what's down the road."

Chris O'Hare from Tulsa took the individual title with a time of 23.33 and helped the Golden Hurricanes to the meet title with 104 total points.

"We have to do a lot in these next two weeks," Stewart said. "We need to work on having confidence throughout the entire race. We've trained well, we just need to believe in everything we've done to be in this position."

The Orange and Blue will take a weekend off before they compete in both the Wisconsin adidas Invitational in Madison, Wis., and the Bradley Classic in Peoria, Ill., on Friday, Oct. 12

ILLINOIS RESULTS
24. Hunter Mickow, 24:13
27. Jannis Topfer, 24:17
49. Tommy King, 24:31
81. Ian Barnett, 24:49
125. Paul Zeman, 25:26
130. Sam Telfer, 25:31
161. Jordan Hebert, 26:57

TEAM RESULTS (out of 20)
1. Tulsa 104
2. Princeton 139
3. Notre Dame 143
4. Florida State 152
5. Eastern Kentucky 167
14. ILLINOIS 298