ROMEOVILLE, IL --- The Illinois Springfield women's cross country team stepped into arguably the best Division II Meet outside of nationals when they placed 30th of 34 NCAA Division II schools at the Lewis Conference Crossover Meet, held Saturday on the campus of Lewis University.
 
Top finisher for the team was Krissy Finley (167th of 359 finishers)  with a time of 24:24 for the 6000m course.  Lexi Yoggerst (264th/25:47), Lexi Throne (265th/25:47), Olivia Rohr (269th/25:51) and Gloria Esarco (301st/26:29) rounded out the Top-five scoring places.
 
The UIS team totaled 944 points for their 30th place finish.  Cal Baptist upset current #1 ranked Grand Valley 51 to 66 to take the team title.  Third thru fifth place teams were Alaska Anchorage, Walsh, and Hillsdale.  A total of eight of the Top-30 Teams at the Division II level competed in the meet, including five of the Top-10.  Teams across seven of the eight NCAA II Regions were a part of the meet and 22 of the 34 schools were rated in the Top-10 in their respective region.
 
Coach Mike De Witt had these comments on the teams performance:  "It was great to get an up close of view of the best in Division II.  We spoke about observing the good teams in warm-ups, but realistically were competing against the group of eight schools in the final scoring.  We did a fine job of placing third out of that group of teams, when just those schools were scored.  Overall we ran consistent to what we have been racing at over the past two meets, which is a key factor for a team that is still developing."