NIU cross country finished its season Friday at the NCAA Midwest Regional Championships with a 27th place team finish. In the final team standings, the Huskies topped in-state foes DePaul and SIU-Edwardsville.

Coach Greg Hipp said that illness changed the outcome for the Huskies on Friday.

“It’s certainty what we weren’t looking for,” Hipp said. “We had some things that went wrong; we had two kids that collapsed during the race. Courtney [Oldenburg] collapsed with 1,000 meters to go, she was on the ground for over 30 seconds before she was able to recover and finish. Ali Olson collapsed and had to go to the medical tent for an hour, she couldn’t finish the race.”

In the final cross country race of her career, senior Courtney Oldenburg finished in 127th place, crossing the finish line at 23:17.37. Oldenburg was running in the top 60 until collapsing at the 5K mark. After 30 seconds on the ground, she returned to her feet and finished strong to end her cross county career.

“Obviously it wasn’t my best race,” Oldenburg said. “For the most of us it wasn’t our best race. It was a really tough course. I peaked early in the season and didn’t really have a lot left in the tank. Mentally I was ready for the race but physically I wasn’t.”

Oldenburg ends her career as the school’s record holder in both the 5K and 6K, both of which were set earlier this season.

Taking second among the Huskie runners was sophomore Juliane Totzke with a time of 23:25.35 and 134th place showing. Trailing her was junior Alexis Capps, who timed in at 23:59.36 to claim 163rd place.

Junior Claire McAuley closed her junior year with a 24:03.52 run to take 166th and sophomore Jamie Burr ran a 24:30.51 for 190th place.

Rounding out the NIU scorers was freshman Hannah Savage, who came in 201st place overall with a time of 25:01.98. Fellow freshman Ali Olson was unable to finish the race after falling to the ground with 400 meters left. Olson was in the medical tent for an hour before being released.

Betsy Saina of Iowa State went on to win Individual honors and would also help Iowa State take first place at the NCAA Midwest Regional Championships.

Coach Hipp believes that since the roster is so young that the cross country team has a bright future.

“Despite us not getting to our goals this year and what we were capable this year we have a pretty good outlook for next year,” Hipp said. “Half of our recruiting class was redshirted. We will get an instant boost from those that redshirted. We also have a really good recruit that is coming in next year. We only lose one person. While the outcome of the season wasn’t the way we wanted it to be, it sets us up for the long term.”