DeKALB — NIU cross country hosted its annual home meet, the Huskie Classic, on Friday as two Huskies earned a top-15 finish.
As a team, the Huskies earned a fourth place finish in a field of five teams with an overall score of 83. NIU finished in front of Chicago State University, who totaled 129 points.
University of Illinois-Chicago finished in third, narrowly beating out the Huskies in the standings and finishing with a score of 77.
DePaul University won the invitational, scoring 20 points with each of their scoring athletes finishing in the top-10. DePaul sophomore Tessa Roe was the individual winner of the race by over 20 seconds, with a time of 17:55.26.
Freshman Amelie Ojeda was the top finisher for the Huskies, claiming a fourth-place finish with a time of 18:39.52.
With two collegiate races under her belt, Ojeda has finished at the top of the leaderboard in each of her races this season. On Aug. 29, in her last meet, Ojeda finished in 20th place at the Fighting Illini Open.
“She’s (Ojeda’s) a competitor,” NIU head coach Juan Carrillo said. “I was happy with the way she raced. We’re just missing some work, more specific race-pace work. I think she’s very strong right now, we just have to add a little more training under her and she’ll be able to hold a faster pace from start to finish. She’s gonna be good.”
NIU freshman Ariel Hernandez also earned a top-15 finish for the Huskies, finishing in 13th place with a time of 19:11.94. Hernandez finished one second behind Chicago State senior Weronika Stanczak.
Freshman Claire Helmila was the last Huskie to place within the top-20 after running the race in 19:33.42 minutes to finish in 17th place.
Freshman Liliana Camargo earned a 29th place spot for the Huskies with a time of 20:30.60. Sophomore Varri Higgins was the final Huskie to finish the race, coming in at 36th place with a time of 21:24.44.
“The most important thing for us this year is to become a team through practice,” Carrillo said. “So we try to do a lot of activities to build relationships with each other. The girls look like they are having fun, enjoying each other and running for each other. We are such a young team, but they are very close.”
The Huskies’ next invitational will be on Sept. 26 in Columbia, Missouri for the Gans Creek Classic, hosted by the University of Missouri.
