The Illini Men’s Cross Country team finished 15th out of 32 teams at the Pre-NCAA invitational this past weekend. Junior Trent Hoerr led the Illini with a 43rd overall finish and an 8K personal best time of 24:26. Senior Jason Bill finished 51st with a time of 24:29. He says his teammates use each other for motivation.

“We need to push each other and have a little competition amongst ourselves.”

The Illini men now look ahead to the Big Ten Championships on the 29th. Fifth year senior Jon Houseworth says the team definitely has something to prove.

“I think a lot of people are going to be motivated more than ever to get back out there to get a better result than we had and show people that we are a better team then what the results showed.”

The conference championships will take place in Bloomington, Indiana.