NORTH CENTRAL AND ELMHURST MAINTAIN WINNING WAYS IN CROSS COUNTRY

When it comes to cross country in the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin, some things never change. North Central and Elmhurst maintained their stranglehold on the championships of the CCIW cross country titles with impressive performances on Saturday, November 2 at DuPage River Park in Naperville, Illinois.

The North Central men, under the direction of veteran head coach Al Carius, easily won the conference title with 25 points. The Cardinals, who stuffed eight runners in the top 10 individually, won for the 29th consecutive year. You have to go back to 1973, when Richard Nixon occupied the White House, to find a name other than North Central on top of men's cross country in the CCIW.

Hamilton Beal of Carthage won the individual race with a time of 25:18.2 over the 8,000 meter course, besting runner-up Tim Hachmeister of Illinois Wesleyan by four seconds. Hachmeister was timed in 25:22.4. The next eight positions were filled with North Central runners with Tim Nelson leading the charge in third with a time of 25:23.1. Pat Rizzo (25:29.4), Andy Enright (25:31.3), Greg Targosz (25:32.4), Marcin Toporkiewicz (25:32.7), Kevin Licht (25:40.8), Reggie Jonaitis (25:56.4) and Christopher Pelz (26:02) filled out the Cardinal landslide.

Augustana was second with 76 points while Elmhurst took third with 91 and Carthage was a close fourth with 92. Wheaton (131), Illinois Wesleyan (149), Millikin (220) and North Park (245) rounded out the field.

North Central now owns 36 of the 43 men's cross country team championships awarded since the CCIW started the sport in 1960.

Elmhurst put four runners in the top 10, including taking three of the first four positions and the Bluejays scored a fairly easy 31-54 win over second place Wheaton. Kathleen Brice of Elmhurst won the individual title for the second year in a row with a time of 21:58.2 over the 6,000 meter course. She beat her teammate Adrien Ricci by over half a minute as Ricci was clocked in 22:32.7.

Molly Morrison of North Central took third in 22:47.2 and Erin Brice of Elmhurst was fourth in 23:00.2. Wheaton's Rachel Zisch finished fifth in 23:31.1 with Valerie Lambrecht of Illinois Wesleyan placing sixth in 23:41.3. The Augustana duo of Erin Fiene (23:48.3) and Jennifer Smith (23:53.4) finished seventh and eighth. Elmhurst's Krista Phelps was ninth in 23:55.8 and Wheaton's Valarie Orshonsky rounded out the top ten with a time of 24:03.9.

Elmhurst won for the third consecutive year. After Wheaton's runnerup finish, Augustana was third with 81. Illinois Wesleyan followed in fourth with 117 points while Carthage took fifth with 126 points. North Central (167), North Park (182) and Millikin (186) finished off the field.