Rock Island, Ill. – On Saturday, October 4th, Illinois Tech Cross Country competed at the Brisman Lundeen Invitational at Saukie Golf Course, hosted by Augustana College. 

The men's and women's teams showed solid individual performances but did not field a full scoring lineup this week. Rather the team focused on individual efforts. This is the first of two races at this course for the Scarlet Hawks and the athletes that competed got invaluable experience to prepare for when they go back. 

Two standouts from this meet are Freshman Benjamin Gaeta and Sophomore Paige McEnerny both landing personal records in less-than-ideal conditions. The heat was brutal during this race but that didn't stop them from running a 30:04.6 and 29:27.3 respectively! Reflecting on his performance Benjamin Gaeta said, 

"This meet was all about discipline, it's not always about the results but more about the discipline that's built. It was hot and hard to run but as a team we pushed through and endured. Due to my injury, I had not run a meet in 4 weeks, and I was so worried about how I would perform and how I would compete. But I trusted my team and I stayed disciplined, and I was able to perform." 

Assistant Coach Valerie Lending summed up the Scarlet Hawks experience last weekend with this quote: 

"It's not easy to run on such a hot day, especially at this point in the season. I think the performances showed a lot of resilience. It was a very promising showing for how the rest of our season will go."  

Top Performers  

Men's 8k    

Benjamin Gaeta – 30:04.60 

Women's 6k 

Paige McEnerny – 29:27.30 

Up Next  

The Scarlet Hawks will have the weekend off before returning to Saukie Golf Course in Rock Island, IL for the Augustana Interregional Invitational on Saturday, October 18th.