The No. 6-ranked Illinois women’s cross country team and highly-recruited freshman Angela Bizzarri left a lasting impression at the Brissman-Lundeen Invite hosted by Augustana College on Friday evening. Illinois, making its first appearance in the 25th annual race, took the team title with 16 points and swept the first four spots, while Bizzarri won the 6,000-meter event with a time of 20:54 in her collegiate debut.

“Angela definitely surprised me a little bit, but I was more surprised with how the other girls got caught off guard,” head coach Karen Harvey said. “Nobody ran bad, Angela just had a great race and everyone else ran solid.”

Friday’s race marked the first time Harvey’s top nine runners competed this season. The Illini ran against 33 schools and 376 individual finishers. Illinois’ closest competition, the 2005 Division II national champion Olivet Nazarene team, finished with 75 points.

“I think it’s a good start; we ran the race as a workout and I didn’t have many expectations going in with, either,” Harvey said.

Senior Stephanie Simms grabbed a second-place finish with a time of 21:06, while freshman Stephanie Baliga came in third with a 21:09. Senior Cassie Hunt, a three-time All-American and the 2005 Big Ten Athlete of the Year, finished in fourth place with a time of 21:20. Although Hunt is weeks behind in training because of her participation in the NCAA and U.S. national steeplechase competitions over the summer, Harvey is not worried. Talent never goes away, she said.

“(Cassie’s) running great for her right now – the rest will come around once she gets her legs and lungs back,” Harvey said. “She is five weeks behind in training; not many people could come out and do what she did.”

Also competing for the Illini were sophomore Maggie Carroll (6th place), freshman Shannon Phelan (8th), sophomore and 2005 Big Ten Freshman of the Year Katie Engel (10th), sophomore Liz Mengyan (15th) and freshman Theresa Brokaw (31st). Carroll finished with a time of 21:36, although she was sick for much of the week, and Engel, a week behind in training because of a shin injury, finished in 21:52.

With the race competition mostly comprised of Division II and III teams and the Illini only really running against each other, Harvey said no runner ran at 100 percent.

“They didn’t start running hard until one mile to go, the top five were together (through that point),” Harvey said. “Some ran hard that last mile and some could not sprint; Angela was sprinting.

“I kept telling her to catch the golf cart (pacing the race); she jumped everybody.”

What Harvey saw in Davenport, Iowa, bodes well for the team’s meet next Friday at Notre Dame, she said, when it will be taking on a number of Big Ten teams.

“I’m so glad we went to Augustana,” Harvey said. “We saw the things we did right and the things we need to improve on; it prepared us to run better (at Notre Dame).”