NORMAL, Ill.—Senior Jennifer Comastri (Indianapolis, Indiana) finished 10th out of 144 competitors to lead No. 5 University of Southern Indiana Women’s Cross Country to a fifth-place finish in a 13-team field that consisted of 12 NCAA Division I programs Friday evening at the Illinois State University Redbird Invite.
Comastri finished the six-kilometer course in 21 minutes, 16.90 seconds, nearly 13 seconds faster than the 11th-place finisher and less than a minute off the winning pace of 20:20.70, set by Northwestern University’s Rachel McCardell.
Sophomore Hadley Fisher (Evansville, Indiana) aided the Screaming Eagles’ efforts, finishing 38th with a time of 22:28.50, while fellow classmate Cameron Hough(Olney, Illinois) was 48th with a time of 22:41.00. Freshman Allison Morphew (Evansville, Indiana) and sophomore Karlee Hoffman (Owensboro, Kentucky) rounded out the Eagles’ top five competitors with respective finishes of 54th and 57th, while sophomore Lauren Greiwe (West Harrison, Indiana) and freshman Katie Winkler(Santa Claus, Indiana) clocked finishes of 69th and 71st, respectively, to round out USI’s top seven.
As a team, the Eagles finished with 179 points to edge sixth-place Marquette University by two points. Host Illinois State was fourth with 134 points, while the University of Illinois (43 points), Northwestern (52 points) and Loyola University Chicago (62 points) had the top three team performances.
USI returns to action October 9 at 8:30 a.m. when it competes at the University of Alabama-Huntsville Charger Invitational in Huntsville, Alabama.
