Sept. 14, 2007

NORMAL, Ill. - Loyola University Chicago's cross country teams turned in solid performances this evening at the Illinois Intercollegiate Championships hosted by Illinois State University, with the women placing fourth in the 20-team field with a team score of 146. The Rambler men finished eighth in the 22-team event with a 219.

Junior Pam Staton, the reigning Horizon League Female Athlete of the Week, led the way for the Loyola women with a time of 18:46.33, which was good enough for 19th place in the 5k race. Freshman Danielle Locascio (18:57.83) placed 26th, senior Rachel Hansen (19:01.59) finished 30th, junior Genevieve Binnie (19:02.67) captured 31st and junior Jessie Morgenthal (19:23.61) placed 44th for the Ramblers this evening to round out the team scoring.

Alison Rack turned in a time of 20:07.84 and Gada Qafisheh clocked in at 20:21.89 to wrap up the Loyola lineup.

Illinois captured the women's title with a score of 26, followed by Illinois State (67), Northwestern (114) and the Ramblers.

Loyola's men were led by rookie Ben Reifenberg's 8k time of 25:20 en route to an eighth-place team showing. The remaining individual men's results were unavailable at release time. The Fighting Illini men's team also captured first place with a total of 47 points, followed closely by Rend Lake College (58) and Illinois State (62).

The Ramblers are off until Sept. 29 when they host the Sean Earl Lakefront Invitational at Montrose Beach.