Women's Cross Country | September 2

ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University cross country team finished second in its first competition of the season at the UIC Fames/Flyer Opener on Saturday. The regionally ranked No. 8 Huskies finished behind No. 6 Northwestern by 12 points in the four-kilometer race.
 
Everything went well for our first showing," said NIU head coach Adrian Myers. "It's the first race. We walk away with positive feedback, things we can learn from, things we can adjust moving forward. The one thing that I'm excited about is, as good as some people ran, that's still not our strongest order. I know that come October, we're going to be where we need to be, and we're going to be very tough to beat. I'm just looking forward to that, but for now, we're just going to move on to the next week."
 
Senior Lorena Martin (Salamanca, Spain/IFS Fray Luis de Leon) led the Huskies with a fourth-place finish time of 14:41.50, followed by freshman Mackenzie Callahan (Minooka, Ill./Minooka), finished fifth overall in 14:42.41. The three Huskies to round out the scoring positions for the morning included freshman Daly Galloway (Dwight, Ill./Dwight), junior Ericka Hibser (Lewistown, Ill./Lewistown) and sophomore Vivian Overbeck (Vernon Hills, Ill./Vernon Hills).
 
"Lorena stepped up big," said Myers. "I've always known she's had it in her. It's just taken a few years to dig it out and get her to understand that she isn't just an 800 runner and that she is a cross country runner. I hope this serves as a confidence boost for her to be as good as she wants to be in cross country. I'm proud of her and her progress.
 
"Mackenzie was super tough in high school, and I knew she would be there. She's shown it in practice. Same thing with Daly Galloway. She's looked tremendous in training, and she's really holding her own. The freshmen are training exceptionally well. They're just freshmen, it's going to take some time. We can't speed that part up. We just have to take our time, keep working, and it will come together at the right time. I have full faith in that."
 
Martin, Callahan, Galloway, Hibser and Overbeck were five of eight Huskies to finish in the top 25 of a 102-participant race. They were joined by sophomore Melissa Ricci (Erie, Pa./Villa Maria Academy) as well as freshmen Sara Atkins (Wheaton, Ill./Wheaton Warrenville South) and Noelle Maire (Belleville, Wis./Belleville [Sugar River]).
 
NIU's next competition in Friday, Sept. 8 at 5 p.m. CST in Normal, Ill. The Huskies will compete in the ISU Country Financial Invitational after winning the competition last year. This will be the second of four in-state meets of the season.
 
-NIU-