NORMAL, Ill. – The Illinois College men's and women's cross country teams started off the 2019 season with a pair of fifth-place finishes at the Illinois Wesleyan University Titan Opener.
Grant Seniker provided the biggest highlight of the day for the Blueboys and Lady Blues by shaving nearly 10 seconds off the previous school record in the men's 5K.
The evening started off with a two-mile run for the Lady Blues. Rebecca Lucas and Ashlyn Haage finished back-to-back with times of 14:35.26 for Lucas and 14:45.34 for Haage. Ashley Devlin was next up as the senior also broke the 15-minute barrier with a finish of 14:56.34.
The final two runners for the Lady Blues were newcomers Kailey Acra (15:03.62) and Elizabeth Ruvalcaba (15:12.46). The IC women finished with 161 points on the night.
In the men's 5K, Seniker's time of 16:50.03 was nearly 10 seconds better than the previous school record held by Mark Ryan from back in the 2008 season. He would be the first of eight Blueboy runners to cross the finish line on the evening. Next up was
Eduardo Fulgencio in 17:30.17.
Jacob Fedderke (17:38.97) and
Steven Melin (17:45.01) also broke 18 minutes in the race, running at a pace faster than six minutes per mile.
The other four runners for the Blueboys on Friday were
Anthony Canton (18:44.76),
Lucas Brown (18:46.72),
Parker Perrine (19:37.12) and
Connor Warhausen (20:14.74). Illinois College totaled 140 points in the men's competition.
Illinois College heads to Springfield next Friday evening to take part in the UIS Invite starting at 5:30 p.m.
