Cross country took to the course one last time in 2013 against the toughest in the midwest, finishing 23rd out of 34 at the NCAA Midwest Regional held in Ames, Iowa, Friday.

NIU beat out local rivals Eastern Illinois, SIU Edwardsville, University of Illinois at Chicago and DePaul in the final standings.

“[They were] some teams that had beat us early in the year, and to be able to get them in the final one was a good sign for us to stay ahead of teams that are traditionally ahead of our program,” said head coach Greg Hipp.

Hipp said the Huskies had a different approach on race execution, and he was happy with the turnout despite the final standings.

“Our plan was to be a little more aggressive early … and try and be a little more committed early on in the race,” Hipp said. “We have had a problem our last couple meets of just making a decision to let it go a little too soon, so we just put a big emphasis on getting to at least the 4K mark and seeing where we were, so the girls got out a lot more aggressive. We certainly had some better performances than we had a week ago.”

The top Huskie finisher for the third consecutive meet was junior Meghan Heuer, who placed 45th out of 213 runners, timing in at 21:31. That mark is the second-best NIU 6K in school history as Heuer missed out on Courtney Oldenburg’s 2012 record-setting run by two seconds.

“She got out way more aggressive and just responded well through the race, as we kind of told her what position she was in,” Hipp said. “Her goal was to be top 50. Each time we saw her if she was in 50th or 55th we would tell her where she was; she would make the good push to hold good position or move up a little bit … she put herself in it early. She ran much more determined this week then last.”

Ali Olson, who has been a consistent No. 1 or No. 2 for the Huskies this season, continued that in Friday’s competition. Olson ran alongside Leah Raffety for a good portion of the race, and the duo executed one of their best races of the season. Hipp compared Friday to October’s Bradley Classic, one of NIU’s most successful outings of the season.

“Ali and Leah worked together a majority of the race. I think that helped the two of them,” Hipp said. “It was probably as good of a race that they have run in cross country. The Iowa State course is a little tougher than Bradley; for the girls to be in the same kind of time range shows how well they ran…. This course is hillier and not on manicured golf course grass like Bradley. So this kind of performance showed this was probably their best race of the year….”

Olson crossed the finish line in 22:24.70, taking 116th place, and Raffety was less than three seconds behind her, timing in at 22:27.60, which resulted in a 121st place finish.

Juliane Totzke was one of the two seniors running the course for NIU. Totzke finished the race in a time of 22:47.20, her 6K personal best, which placed her in 147th.

“I wanted to improve on my last couple of races because they were not what I wanted out of the season,” Totzke said. “I just tried to get my mental aspect right and tried to run the best possible race, I think I finished [my career] quite well, but it is not what I was hoping for the season.”

Competing in her first regional, Carly Pederson was the next Huskie to finish when she came in 175th with a time of 23:21.20.

Claire McAuley also raced in her final NIU cross country competition, taking 179th to time in at 23:28.10.