CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Freshman Taylor Floyd Mews (Milwaukee, Wis./Wauwatosa West) took fifth to help the Bradley men's cross country team win the Illini Open, while sophomore Mackenzie Griffin (Petersburg, Ill./PORTA) was 12th to lead the Bradley women's cross country squad to a second-place showing Friday afternoon at the University of Illinois Arboretum.
The Bradley men had two individuals place in the top 10 and four in the top 16 to claim top team honors with 33 points. Missouri Valley Conference rival Illinois State was second in the team standings with 44 points with Purdue following in third (45 points).
In the women's race, Griffin was one of four Braves to finish in the top 17, but host Illinois had five individuals in the top 10 to claim the team title with 25 points. Bradley was second in the seven-team field with 78 points to edge Big Ten Conference foe Northwestern (79 points) by one point. Butler was fourth overall at 115.
After leading the Bradley men at last week's Bradley Classic, Floyd Mews led the Braves again Friday at the Illini Open with a time of 25:46.97 to finish fifth. He was joined in the top 10 by sophomore Steffen Uhrich (Wauwatosa, Wis./East) who clocked a career-best 8K time for the second straight outing. Uhrich was ninth overall at 25:56.94 to top his previous career-best effort by 20 seconds.
Freshman Nikolas Hess (Rantoul, Ill./St. Thomas More) was close behind Hess in 13th at 26:01.55, while sophomore Mike Bianchina (Geneva, Ill./Geneva) crossed the line at 26:08.94 to finish 16th. Sophomore Taras Didenko (Buffalo Grove, Ill./Buffalo Grove) completed the scoring for the Braves in 21st with a time of 26:26.14.
Griffin paced the Bradley women's team with a career-best 5K time of 18:54.20 to finish 12th and beat her previous career-best time by 16 seconds. Junior Kylie McKinney (Petersburg, Ill./PORTA), who led the Braves last week at the Bradley Classic, followed in 13th with a time of 18:55.26.
Freshman Kathryn Adelman (Naperville, Ill./Geneva) turned in a time of 18:59.05 in the first 5K of her collegiate career to finish 16th and edge out 17th-place finisher and teammate Natalie Burant (Hartland, Wis./Arrowhead), who posted a time of 18:59.25. Fellow freshman Molly Leveille (North Liberty, Iowa/Iowa City West) was 27th at 19:17.18 to round out the scoring for Bradley.
The Bradley men's and women's cross country teams return to action Saturday, Nov. 1 (10 a.m.) at the Missouri Valley Conference Championships in Carbondale, Ill.
