ELMHURST, Ill.- The Illinois Institute of Technology Women's Cross Country team began the season Friday night, competing in the Elmhurst Earlybird Invitational hosted by Elmhurst College. Tech had three runners compete int he event at Eldridge Park in Elmhurst.

Scarlet Hawk Standouts

• All three of the team's competitiors placed in the Top 50. They were led by Caitlyn Brunner, who placed 10th at 16:21.7 in the 4k race
• Rebecca and Brooke Bell finished very strong as well. Rebecca placed 40th with a time of 18:21.6, while Brooke placed 46th with a time of 18:29.4

For the Foes

• Aurora University won the event and also had the race's top finisher

Quotes from Coach Williams

• "Once the excitement wore of and the women settled into the race, they showed that they can and will grind it out and fight for places when the time comes."
• "Caitlyn Brunner ran a great race in her first race in quite sometime. She was very patient and picked people off the entire four kilometers."
• "Becky & Brooke Bell did a great job of letting their athletic instincts take over and pull them through to a great start, also having not had a cross country race in a very long time."
• "I was pleased to see that they didn't get intimidated by the big squads and stuck to our plan of seeing where our fitness level is and using this as a workout to get ready for the full races over the next several weeks."

Also of Note

• The meet was the team's first under the leadership of Joel Williams

Up Next

• Women's Cross Country will race at the UW-Parkside Midwest open on Saturday, September 12. Race time is set for 11:00 a.m.