The men’s cross country team ran in the Big Ten Championship meet on Sunday, finishing in eighth place overall, improving on last year’s ninth place finish.

The Big Ten Conference is one of the top cross-country conferences in the nation with five of the top 30 teams in the country. Wisconsin, who won the conference championship for the sixth straight year, is ranked first in the nation. Indiana (No. 13), Iowa (No. 30), Michigan State (No. 27) and Minnesota (No. 19) are the other schools ranked in the top 30.

Simon Bairu, a junior from Wisconsin, ran away with his second straight Big Ten Championship, finishing first overall.

Sophomore Trent Hoerr led the Illini with a 17th place finish. He improved 24 spots from last year’s 41st place finish.

“I ran the best I ran all year,” Hoerr said. “As a team, we did the best we’ve done all year, but everyone didn’t run up to their potential.”

Junior Jason Bill followed with a 22nd place finish. This marks the first time Bill has not finished first for the Illini since John Kronforst finished ahead of Bill at the Illinois Invitational on Oct. 5, 2002.

Through the first mile, Bill was in the front of the pack, but he fell back after suffering side stitch, which is a severe abdominal cramp. Bill was expected to finish in the top five.

“We think it’s caused by a back problem,” said head coach Paul Pilkington. “It’s happened to him throughout his entire career but hasn’t happened for nine months. We thought it was completely gone, but obviously it’s not.”

Because of the severity of the injury, Pilkington will take Bill’s recovery slowly.

“The cramp leaves him sore enough that he can’t go for three or four days,” Pilkington said. “We’ll put him on a stationary bike and keep his legs in shape.”

Three runners set personal best times. Hoerr broke his previous record by 28 seconds, junior Tim Hobbs set a personal best by 50 seconds, placing 33rd overall, and senior Kris Cunningham placed 39th on his way to breaking his previous best time.

“We’re getting more confident,” Hoerr said. “We’re all improving. We need two guys to step up and Jason to be healthy, and then we’ll be in good shape.”

With Bill healthy, the Illini could have finished sixth.

“We were only four points behind Michigan State,” Pilkington said. “We would’ve beaten them and could have had a shot at sixth.”

The team’s next meet is the NCAA Regionals on Nov. 13 in Peoria, Ill.

“If Jason’s healthy, we’ll be competitive,” Pilkington said. “A lot depends on him. He was a good 15-20 spots back from where he was supposed to be.”