Oct. 6, 2006

Complete Results

Lisle, Ill. - When the races get bigger, so do the performances of the Northern Illinois women's cross country team.

Performing in their first 6K meet of the season, Northern Illinois ran away with their fifth consecutive Benedictine Eagle Invitational title, behind top-ten finishes from sophomore Meghan Ginter (Aurora, Ill.), sophomore Ashley Rittenbacher (New Lenox, Ill.), junior Mia Supanich-Winter (Libertyville, Ill.) and senior Jessica Schauff (Dixon, Ill.) at Lisle Community Park on Friday afternoon.

Ginter finished in fourth-place with a time of 23:42.7, followed by Rittenbacher (6th, 23:49.7), Supanich-Winter (7th, 23:50) and Schauff (8th, 23:51.5). Junior Denisse Valladares (Mount Prospect, Ill.) rounded out the scoring for the Huskies with a 14th-place mark of 24:07.

"It was good to get a 6K in," NIU Assistant Cross Country Coach Mark McConeghey said. "They ran very well as a pack, so that's a good thing. We're improving each week, that's what's important, and hopefully we'll peak by conference."

Finishing behind the Huskies was Goshen (72), St. Joseph's (100), St. Mary's (137), Lake Forest (164), Concordia (WI) (168), Illinois Central (174), Aurora (211), Harper Community College (227), Robert Morris (234), Benedictine (283), MSOE (289), Moraine Valley Community College (292), Alverno (424) and Rockford (442).

Goshen's Petrana Petkova won the individual title for the second-straight season with a mark of 22:45.5.

NIU is back in action on Saturday, October 14, as they travel to Kenosha, Wis., to participate in the UW-Parkside Invitational. --NIU--