Crystal Meeks was the leading Ball State runner for the first time this year, helping the Cardinal cross country team to a seventh-place at Friday's Notre Dame Invitational in South Bend.
Stanford took the top three spots and totaled a mere 21 points to win the meet. Also finishing ahead of Ball State (296 points) were Wisconsin, Notre Dame, Washington, Indiana and Northwestern. Other Mid-American Conference teams competing were Akron (11th), Central Michigan (12th) and Eastern Michigan (18th). In all, 24 teams competed.
"We were better than last week (at Minnesota)," head coach Sue Parks said. "We were among the highest of the non-ranked teams. It was an improvement, and we did the best we could, but we're not at 100 percent yet. If we're at 100 percent, we can be up there with the ranked teams."
Meeks, a junior, finished the 5,000 meter course in 18:27 to place 35th overall. Sophomores Sarah Huddleston (18:31) and Jill Scully (18:34) finished 43rd and 49th, respectively.
Seniors Stacey Ritz (18:47) and Katie Nowak (19:14) followed in 65th and 114th, respectively. Also running were sophomore Linda Stebbins (115th, 19:16), freshman Nicole Hartford (135th, 19:34), sophomore Aubrey Gaffer (161st, 19:51) and senior Natasha Lothery (195th, 20:53).
"Crystal Meeks ran a really nice race," Parks said. "Crystal, Jill and Sarah have continued to run well."
Parks said that while Ritz and Nowak have yet to run as well as when they advanced to nationals (Nowak in 2000 and Ritz last year), the potential is still there for them to lead the team.
"Stacey and Katie are still struggling to get back into form (after injuries)," Parks said. "The good thing is, when you're talking about national-qualifying people like Stacey and Katie, you're not asking something out of them they haven't done. There's still time for them to get back into top form and lead."
The Cardinals have this coming weekend off before running at the pre-NCAA meet in Terre Haute on October 19.
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