Normal, IL – Five Millikin runners earned top 10 finishes Friday evening to lead the Big Blue men's and women's cross country reams to a 1st place team finish in the Men's 8K and the Women's 5K at the Heartland Invitational.
The Millikin women earned a first-place finish with 51 points. Sophomore
Jillian Conlon led the way with her 5th place finish at a time of 19:12.0. 5.2 seconds later, Junior
Teyla Wendt would cross the finish line to place 6th. Sophomores
Emma Mathews (19:27.9/11th) and
Lindsey Klaus (19:28.1/13th) both notched their first top 15 finishes of 2026. Fellow sophomore
Kiley Coker placed 16th with 19:46.1, while Freshman
Alaina Karker crossed the line at a time of 19:49.9. Sophomore
Brynn Behrmann rounds out the scoring for the Big Blue in 18th at 20:00.5.
The Big Blue Men finished 1st with 31 points. Junior
Reece Peters earned his second consecutive top finish for the Blue & White. He placed 2nd with a time of 25:33.6 in the 8K race. Fellow Junior
Joey McGinn (25:52.4/4th) and Senior
Aiden Pacunas (26:12.9/9th) would finish in the top 10. Senior
Josh LaChance (26:19.8/11th) and Sophomore
Talan Thrasher (26:20.6/12th) crossed the line within milliseconds of each other, both finishing in the top 15. Junior
Aaron Mohr finished in 29th at a clip of 27:10.4, while Sophomore
Ryne Norton placed 33rd with a time of 27:18.6 to cap off the Big Blue's scoring.
Quoting Director of Cross Country and Track & Field
Andrew Craycraft
On the women's team performance:
"The women were far more aggressive this week as we looked to test our fitness at this point in the year. I was very impressed with how the women found each other in the toughest moments of the race. Our depth was outstanding with just a 56 second spread from 1-8.
On the men's team performance:
"The men were equally assertive from the gun with the same aim of testing where we are at and they looked strong. Reece continues to be a great leader for us and Joey had a huge, breakthrough race. Both teams are running so selflessly. It's great to see the program keep coming together, week-in and week-out."
The Big Blue will be back in action on Saturday, Oct. 3 at Augustana's Brissman-Lundeen Invitational.
