Warrenville, Ill. - The Illinois Tech cross country team reached the midway point of their season on Saturday, when they competed in the Gil Dodds invitational, hosted by Wheaton College.

The Scarlet Hawks finished in 12th place overall in the men's race, and 17th overall for the women's race. with some notable performance improvements taking place with opportunities to grow moving forward.

"I think we saw a lot of growth from last week (Spartan Invitational on September 14th) and improved on the things we wanted to do," said Head Coach Tyler McQuality." We had a lot more positive energy collectively and we saw the results of what that means. I am looking forward to our team having a week off of racing to rest, recover, and get ready for our second half of our racing season."

On the women's side, Sophia Halama set a personal record in the 6k race with a time of 24:19.70, the fastest Illinois Tech women's time since 2014. Halama moved into 11th place on the women's cross country record book. Halama finished 31st in the race, and was in the top three among Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) finishers. 

On the men's side, Joey Loriso ran a time of 26:35.60 to place 36th in the men's 8k race. Loriso also placed in the top three among NACC finishers.

"Great team running out there Saturday," said Assistant Coach Evan Balizado. We had some big PRs (personal records) this week and are just getting started."

Assistant Coach Allayna Gagnard echoed the same sentiment regarding the team heading into the second half.

"I was very impressed with the energy and determination the team showed on Saturday," said Gagnard. "There was a lot of improvement and a lot of PRs (personal records set). I am excited to see how the team will perform in two weeks with all of their hard work."

The Scarlet Hawks will be idle this weekend, as they prepare for the D3 Pre-Nationals next Friday, October 4th in Terre Haute, Indiana, hosted by Rose-Hulman.