University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) cross country sophomore Tyler Pasley claimed first place during Friday's 4th Annual UIS Prairie Stars Invitational at UIS Cross Country Course. The Prairie Stars compiled a perfect score of 15 points to earn the meet victory for the second consecutive year.
 
"There were certain things that we wanted to do and we executed what we wanted to do at this time of the year," UIS head coach Scott Slade said. "We wanted to work together, we worked as a team, we ran aggressive second halves of the race and they did exactly what we wanted. If you race properly, the results take care of themselves. They did what we wanted and we got a couple of wins and made the Prairie Stars proud."
 
Pasley recorded a 6K time of 20 minutes, 41.78 seconds. UIS captured each of the top six spots as Kenton Wilson (2nd, 20:55.91), Brendan Kroeger (3rd, 21:04.09), Blake Jones (4th, 21:12.86), Ryan Stark (5th, 21:16.78) and Tyler Hiserote (6th, 21:20.18) secured second through sixth.
 
UIS brought its team mentality into the race. The Prairie Stars ran as pack to start off with and separated from other runners as the race went on.
 
"They team said that they ran better because they ran together early and that was our plan. We wanted them to run together early, feed off of each other's energy and it set them up for the second half of the race, which is when we really pulled away from the field."
 
Trevor Dunkel claimed ninth (21:26.13), Alex Phelps secured 11th (21:33.66), Elliot Nabatov came in 13th (21:41.22), Thomas Wuchte took 14th (21:42.98), Layne Hill locked up 20th (22:13.12), Patrik Elkins posted a 22nd-place finish (22:20.08), Jake Schwartz crossed the finish line 23rd (22:22.76), Preston Henze recorded a 27th-place finish (22:43.52), Emmons King locked up 29th (22:59.51), Drew Detmer captured 46th (24:44.32) and Drake Claxton placed 52nd (25:57.90)
 
Coming in second in the team standings behind UIS was Maryville University with 52 points. NCAA Division III's Millikin University (103) came in third, finishing ahead of National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division I's Danville Area Community College (105), NCAA Division III's Illinois College (117) and NCAA Division III's Blackburn College (166).
 
The Prairie Stars are spending the season building towards the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) Championships on Nov. 3 in Louisville, Ky. and the NCAA Division II Midwest Region on Nov. 17 in Hillsdale, Mich. They can continue to progress by using every meet as an opportunity to learn and improve.
 
"This is just the first step," UIS assistant coach Tyler Pence acknowledged. "Every elite runner in the world, no matter what race and no matter how well it went, wants to take something and learn from the experience. Our end goal is conference and regionals. It is important for them to learn from these experiences and that itself is what's going to make them a lot better."
 
The goal for UIS down the road is striving for further success.
 
"We're happy with our performance, but we're not satisfied," Slade stated. "There's greater things for this program in the future."
 
The Prairie Stars battle in the Gil Dodds Invitational hosted by NCAA Division III's Wheaton College next Saturday at 9:15 a.m. in Wheaton.
 
"We're going to execute our race plan, work as a team and practice things we need to do later. Even though we had a great start [on Friday], it's not just about starting, it's about finishing. We need to finish well and this is just the beginning of what we're doing. The Wheaton meet is just one more step closer to what we really want and that's being competitive at the conference championship."