Women's Cross Country | November 12

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Sara Atkins (Warrenville, Ill./Wheaton Warrenville South) was the top finishing Huskie Friday as the Northern Illinois University women's cross country team wrapped up the regular season at the NCAA Midwest Regional, hosted by Iowa at Ashton Cross Country Course.
 
Atkins finished in the six-kilometer race in 22:32.16, placing 117^th.  Sophomore Julia Finegan (Palatine, Ill./Fremd) and redshirt-senior Victoria Robinson (Lansing, Kan./Lansing) were the next two NIU runners to cross the finish line. Finegan ran a time of 22:48.65, with Robinson right behind her in 22:52.91. The Huskies' scoring group was rounded out by senior Hannah Ricci (Naperville, Ill./Naperville North) who finished the race in 23:13.02, and freshman Joy Jackson (North Aurora, Ill./Benet Academy) in 23:31.19.
 
"We were a bit shorthanded today, but I feel the runners we did have compete today had their best races of the year," said head coach Jamie Moreno. "Julia Finegan had a personal-best by over 20 seconds today and that's really good. She's been very steady for us all year long, as has Joy Jackson. It's very hard to enter a meet when you're not at full strength, but I thought they performed very well. We worked extremely hard all season and I was proud of their performance today."

Facing a field stacked with the top programs in the Midwest, the Huskies finished 28^th. Minnesota won the team competition with 45 points, 30 points clear of second place Oklahoma State. Callie Logue of Iowa State won the individual title in a time of 20:45.08.
 
--NIU--