VERNON HILLS, IL - The Lake Forest College its second annual cross country invitational Saturday (October 21st) at the Half Day Forest Preserve in Vernon Hills, IL. The Foresters finished 7th in the 20-team women's field and 9th out of 19 men's teams.

The team champion in the women's 5-kilometer race was Northwestern University, who placed 4 in the top 13 and 6 in the first 21 finishers. The Foresters were again led by senior Sarah Simpson (Colorado Springs, CO/Palmer), who ran a career-best time of 20:17 and finished 25th overall. Sophomores Erin Motzer (Libertyville, IL/Libertyville) and Molly Sutherland (St. Paul, MN/Visitation) also ran the fastest times of their short careers. Senior Michelle Murillo (Des Plaines, IL/Maine West) finished second on the team and 42nd overall, followed on the Foresters by sophomore Melissa Brown (Cape Coral, FL/Cape Coral) in 61st, Motzer in 66th and Sutherland in 78th. There were 141 individuals in the women's race with first place going to Jenny Spangler of the Lake Forest/Lake Bluff Running Club in a time of 18:21. Spangler is better known for wining the marathon in the 1996 USA Track & Field Olympic Trials.

In the men's 8-kilometer race, Wheaton College placed four in the top 17 as they captured the team title. The individual champion was Joseph Terer of Robert Morris College with a time of 26:15. The top finisher for the Foresters was junior Charles Evans (Asheville, NC/Carolina Day School), who finished 31st with a time of 28:30. Sophomore Eric Crawley (Braintree, MA/Thayer) finished four places and 23 seconds back as he joined sophomores Rob Bahde (Plainfield, IL/Plainfield) and Brandon Johnson (Phoenix, AZ/Brophy) as well as junior Naresh Kavuri (Naperville, IL/Naperville Central) in running career-best times.

The Foresters will compete in the Midwest Conference Championship meet next Saturday (October 28th) at Ripon College. The women will run at 11:00 AM and the men will follow at noon. The final meet of the season will be two weeks later at the NCAA Midwest Regional Championship in Colfax, WI.