The Illinois women’s cross country team headed home to Chicago this weekend to compete at the Loyola Lakefront Invitational. They finished fourth out of 33 teams, behind Princeton, Grand Valley State and Ohio State, respectively.

The Illini were led by freshman Madison Marasco, who finished seventh overall. Sophomores Allison McGrath and Rebecca Craddock finished in the top-20 to help the Illini to a strong finish.

Marasco said it was a team effort.

“Coming in, we had a race plan that we would try and stick today,” Marasco said. “Stay strong, close together, when we passed the finish line.”

The Illini delivered, with all seven of their runners finishing within 15 seconds of each other.

Six of the top seven runners are from the Chicago area, so the meet was like a homecoming. Athletes’ family and friends came to cheer on the Illini.

“It was so awesome to see all of our family and friends come to support us today,” Marasco said. “With them being so close, a lot of our family were able to come and support us. It was just an awesome experience for them to see us running. It was great to have a lot of support there.”

Coach Sarah Haveman said the team had a solid performance. 

“It was a very true team effort,” Haveman said. “They were able to execute very well and really build off one another. And it really took all of them to put out the performance we had today.”

One factor contributing to the team’s fourth-place finish was the consistency of the team’s first five finishers.

“Our top five were fantastic,” Haveman said. “But in reality, we were top-to-bottom fantastic. I thought Allison McGrath stepped up today, Rebecca Craddock (stayed) tough through some hard parts and Marasco really rubbed shoulders with some of the really solid collegiate runners.”

Looking forward, Illinois runs on Oct. 12 at the Bradley Pink Classic in Peoria, followed by the Illini Classic at the University of Illinois Arboretum on Oct. 19.

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