Cross country ‘stellar’ against Horizon teams

Kyle Hauser placed sixth against almost 150 competitors. Photo: Steve Woltmann

The UIC men’s and women’s cross country teams competed at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational Friday, with the men’s team placing eighth out of 18 and the women 14th out of 19 teams.

UIC heads to the Bradley Classic Oct. 16.

“It was exciting to watch both teams respond to the Horizon League teams and come up with stellar team performances,” said cross country head coach Jim Knoedel after Friday’s competition.

“Milwaukee snuck by us today but we will have our sights set on them in four weeks.”

Junior Kyle Hauser placed sixth in a field of almost 150 competitors, completing the five-mile run with a career-best time of 24:48.8 to beat all Horizon League opponents. Sophomore Alex Bashqawi finished in 29th with a time of 25:19.2, while freshman Nathan Mroz finished 39th at the 25:29.9 mark.

On the women’s side, senior Stephanie Sanders was the top performer, finishing 15th in the 5k race with a personal-best time of 18:00.3. Fellow senior Lauren Lindholm was the next Flames finisher, crossing the finish line at 18:08.9. Freshman Allison Hansen completed the race at 19:02.8.