By Erin Foley

Sports editor

New head men’s cross country coach Wendel McRaven liked what he saw from his team on Friday night when it competed in the Hawkeye Open in Iowa City, Iowa. The Illini opened their season on a good note coming in second out of seven teams, only losing to host Iowa.

“They ran tough and competed hard; it was a good chance to see guys in race form, see guys who can step up and compete,” said head coach Wendel McRaven.

Although the team raced tired, McRaven said they didn’t back down. The Illini were led by senior Eric Wallor, who placed fifth overall with a time of 18:37, while sophomore Dan Stock clocked in at 18:40, finishing in sixth place and showing some of the potential he had coming out of high school.

McRaven said Wallor’s impressive performance showed that he wants to be a top-level runner for the Illini.

“For the opening race, I tried to shoot for 5-minute miles, and I was little under that, so I was very pleased,” Wallor said. “This early in the season, it’s learning how to run in these meets to give us more confidence.”

McRaven agreed, saying that Illinois ran against a good Iowa team, a team that was ranked in the top-15 in the nation last year. At the Hawkeye Open, Illinois was able to run against a number of teams in its regional, finishing ahead of Wayne State, Loyola Chicago, Eastern Illinois, Northern Iowa and Depaul.

“It’s a good start for us, an indication of where we’re at,” McRaven said. “In practice, they’ve done a great job of working together, and I wanted to reinstate it to the meet.”

Freshman Tim Maier debuted strong, finishing 10th with a time of 18:53, while sophomore Justin Aronson came in 14th at 18:57. Sophomore Dan Walters gave the best college performance of his life, according to McRaven, with a time of 18:58.

“For the immediate future, we want to grow as a team and lay the groundwork,” McRaven said.”The goal is to set the bar high, and start setting the tone for years to come; we have an investment in that right now.”

The team is concerned with where it stacks up now in the Big Ten conference. McRaven believes there are six or seven teams in the Big Ten that have a shot at going to Nationals.

The one goal McRaven says he will not change at all this year, is for the team to be at its best during championship time of year.

“Coach has been stressing that everything is just a stepping stone to Regionals, Big Ten’s and the championships,” said sophomore Mike Kelley, who finished 24th with a time of 19:09. “The smaller meets in the beginning are stepping stones for later.”