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Men's Cross Country, Track & Field
Illini Place Seventh at Big Ten Championships
Nov. 1, 2009
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Illinois men's cross country team competed at the Big Ten Championships on Sunday at the Penn State Blue-White Golf Course. The Illini finished in seventh place with 166 points, as sophomore Colin Mickow led the Orange and Blue for the sixth consecutive race this year with a 5.2-mile time of 26:04. "Our goal coming into this was to finish in the top five," cross country coach Wendel McRaven said. "Obviously we are a little disappointed because it was right there within our grasp. We made a big error across the board which was struggling in the middle of the race to keep our momentum from the first mile. We got out great and we closed well, but that error was crucial." Mickow finished 25th overall, improving 25 spots from a 50th-place finish last year. He was followed by Chris DeSilva and Jim Riddle, who placed 29th and 31st, respectively. Also scoring for the Orange and Blue were freshman Tom Achtien, placing 40th, and sophomore Dan Kremske in 41st. Wisconsin took the team title for the 11th year in the row with 26 points. Hassan Mead, a junior from Minnesota, captured the individual title with a time of 25:00. "Although we did not meet our goals, the growth of this group from last year is tremendous," McRaven said. "We implemented a lot of things over the last 12 months to position ourselves to be ready to run at the end of the year and we saw some benefits to that. We are not quite there yet, but the guys are already looking at what they can do in order to race well at Regionals." The Orange and Blue will look to improve on this race at the NCAA Midwest Regional Championships on Saturday, Nov. 14 in Springfield, Mo.
ILLINOIS RESULTS
TEAM RESULTS
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