DeKalb | With the heat bearing down on the cross country team, it won its first meet of the season.

The Huskies defeated Div. III North Central College in a dual meet at the NIU North 40.

Led by redshirt freshman Leah Raffety, who took the individual meet title, and Ali Olson, who finished second, NIU had six runners finish in the top seven spots. Head coach Greg Hipp felt the Huskies got out to a good start and maintained a solid speed under the circumstances.

“I think the pace they took early was fine for their fitness levels,” Hipp said. “The heat and it being the first meet, it kind of creeped back on them a little bit, but I liked seeing their aggression. It is kind of hard to teach them to be that

intense.”

Raffety, who won the meet with a time of 19:29.85, and sophomore Olson, who stepped across the finish less than two seconds behind Raffety at 19:31.63, appreciated the crowd’s support.

“It was really nice to have everyone here,” Olson said. “It really shows the tight Huskie athletics bond we have, and I definitely think it helps us compete better.”

Raffety said the crowd drove the NIU runners.

“It helped having all of our fans come out,” Raffety said. “It definitely helped having people know our names and shouting. We had the home field advantage.”

NIU missed out on capturing a third-place slot, but fourth place was taken by team captain Jamie Burr, a junior who clocked in at 19:56.44. The Huskies then finished with the next three places. The top five was rounded out by freshman Carly Pederson, who crossed the line at 19:57.84.

In her first meet competing as a Huskie, junior transfer Meghan Heuer came in at 20:17.89, making her the sixth place finisher. Taking the seventh place spot was Rachel Shoemaker, clocking in at 20:21.63. Senior Claire McAuley finished 13th, timing in at 20:56.81.

Two more Huskies making their debuts finished the opener: Freshman Chrissy Monson took 18th in 21:44.26 and sophomore Hannah Savage in 22nd rounded out NIU’s runners with a time of 22:10.77. Junior Juliane Totzke did start the race was not able to finish because of the heat.