DEKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University women's cross country team took first place at the Huskie Classic on Friday evening (Sept. 4) on the North 40 Course on the NIU campus. The Huskies scored 40 points, equal with Western Illinois, and claimed the meet title on tiebreaker, the finish of the sixth-place runner. 

"This group is special," said NIU head coach Juan Carrillo. "This is the work that we have done for the past three years recruiting and bringing the right people here. This is the result of a lot of hard work. We have to get a little healthier, but they pushed every kilometer, every step of the way. It was pretty close but we showed our effort and how much we wanted to win today."

Amelie Ojeda (Lombard, Ill./Willowbrook) led the way for NIU with a second-place finish, just behind DePaul's Kalina Urbaniak who won the meet with a time of 18:06.40. Three other Huskies finished in the top-10 overall with Ella Spencer (Wiltshire, England) claiming sixth in 18:43.50, Sarah Maggio (Aurora, Ill./Metea Valley) finishing eighth in a time of 18:53.69 and Claire Helmila (Greenville, Wis./Freedom) clocking in at 19:09.26 to take ninth. 

Grace Hanson (Kansas City, Kan./Piper) finished in the final scoring spot for the Huskies, finishing 15th in 19:34.60, and Emerson Fabry (Pulaski, Wis./Pulaski) proved to claim the vital sixth-place tiebreaker finish, running 19:39.93 to claim 16th overall. 

"Amelie was our front-runner," said Carrillo. "She had a good race coming in second. She pushed herself and I think she just ran out of race to get the win. Our 800 runner, Claire Helmila, stepped up, being an 800 runner but being able to compete in a 5K. Our freshman Emerson (Fabry) was our tiebreaker."

The meet victory is the first for the Huskies since winning the Mid-American Conference Championship on Nov. 21, 2020. 

"This sets a tone that we believe in ourselves," said Carrillo. "We know who we are, no matter what the rankings show. When you beat a top-five ranked (Horizon League) team (Milwaukee), convincingly, that sends a message to the conference that we are for real and we are moving in the right direction."

NIU will return to action on Friday, Sept. 18, when they compete in the Redbird Invite in Normal, Ill. 

Team Scores
1. NIU, 40
2. Western Illinois, 40
3. DePaul, 44
4. Milwaukee, 115
5. Mount Mary, 155

NIU Individuals
2. Amelie Ojeda, 18:13.45
6. Ella Spencer, 18:43.50
8. Sarah Maggio, 18:53.69
9. Claire Helmila, 19:09.26
15. Grace Hanson, 19:34.60
16. Emerson Fabry, 19:39.93
21. Ariel Hernandez, 20:03.07