Courtney Oldenburg
The Northern Illinois cross country team returned to the course Saturday with an 11th place team finish in the 51-team field.
The team placing was nine spots better than how they did at the same meet in 2011. In addition, the Huskies finished eighth among U.S. colleges, beating out schools such as Western Michigan, Northern Iowa and IUPUI.
“Our improvement from last year was significant, but we honestly don’t feel like we ran to our potential,” said NIU head coach Greg Hipp. “We’ve been keeping our focus on training and we know there is a better run coming for this group in a few weeks.”
Courtney Oldenburg led all Huskies on the day with a 20th place finish among more than 500 runners. The senior crossed the finish line at 18:09, marking her second-best time on a 5K course in her career.
Freshman Ali Olson took 73rd place and second among NIU runners with an 18:48 mark, while Jamie Burr came in shortly thereafter with a 78th place finish and a 18:52 clip.
Juliane Totzke was the fourth scorer for Northern with a 113th place finish, crossing the finish line at 19:13. Rounding out the scoring for NIU was Claire McAuley, who ran 19:15 and placed 123rd.
Katie Janssen finished with a 176th place finish and 19:44 time, while Alexis Capps took 241st at 20:22. Rounding out the Huskie contingent was Hannah Savage, who returned to the course with a time of 20:45 to take 278th place.
NIU will return to action Friday, Oct. 12, when they trek to Peoria, Ill., for the Bradley Classic.
For more information on NIU cross country and Huskie athletics, visit www.niuhuskies.com.
