DeKalb | The women’s cross country team placed 11th out of 24 teams Friday during the Bradley Pink Classic 6K in Peoria.

One of NIU’s goals going in was to improve upon its 26th-out-of-27 finish at the Roy Griak Invitational, and place higher in the standings than its 2012 Bradley Classic, when they finished 14th of 238. That is exactly what the Huskies did.

Junior Jamie Burr, who has been bothered lately by injures, tried to give the race a go, but could not finish, backing out around the 4K mark with hip issues.

NIU was led by junior Meghan Heuer, who finished the race in 22nd of 238 runners to clock in at 21:40.00.

“That was big for the team for her to start to run more like herself and be much closer to her potential,” said head coach Greg Hipp. “Maybe we can get the whole group to follow along, and if we can be all together at the same time we can end up pretty good eventually.”

Heuer said the conditions didn’t hinder the racer’s ability.

“It was nice, I guess. It was a cold day, but a perfect day for distance running,” Heuer said. “It was a nice race.”

Heuer’s 22nd-place finish is the second-highest Huskie finish of the season. Sophomore Ali Olson placed 16th during NIU’s trip to the Illinois State Invitational on Sept. 13.

Olson ended her two-meet streak of being the top NIU finisher. She finished 60th, crossing the finish at 22:17.00. Finishing the course three seconds behind her was Leah Raffety. She took 65th, timing in at 22:20.00

Claire McAuley led the seniors with a time of 22:47.00 to finish 116th. Freshman Carly Pederson completed the course 129th with a time of 22:58.00.

Hannah Savage finished with a time of 23:07.00 to take 141st. Juliane Totzke returned to the lineup after missing the last two meets, but she struggled, crossing the line at 23:14.00 to finish in 152nd.

The final NIU freshman to finish was Rachel Shoemaker. Shoemaker finished in 23:29.00, taking 169th. Senior Alexis Capps was the final Huskie to cross the line; she finished in 208th with a time of 24:28.00.

NIU still has some work to do, but Hipp feels the team made another stride in the right direction after Friday’s meet. The Huskies have less then two weeks before they take part in the MAC Championship.

“The primary thing is we got to get our confidence [up] to continue to improve,” Hipp said. “We got to get girls to be where they are looking forward to compete.

“Some of the girls are there right now, and some need to be more excited about the race opportunities. We have some that still run a little bit scared, but that is just the challenge of cross country; it’s a tough thing. If we can get to the MAC being confident we will be a pretty good team.”

The MAC Championship will be held 11 a.m. Nov. 2 in Bowling Green, Ohio.