The cross country regular season ended at the Illini Open on Friday, and as each runner crossed the finish line, their Championships’ fate hung in the balance.

It was a strong performance by both Illini squads, as the No. 10 women’s team and the men’s team both won at home in the climax of the regular season.

Freshman Amber Stack placed first individually in the women’s competition, with four Illinois runners placing in the top five. While Illinois State and Northwestern posed a challenge for the Orange and Blue, the true competition was amongst themselves, as they vied for spots to compete at the Big Ten Championships in Ann Arbor, Mich. on Sunday.

“I have to go back and look at the results, and look at not only this meet, but the entire year,” women’s head coach Jeremy Rasmussen said of who he selects for the squad. “I’ll make my decision by Monday, but there were a lot of people that had good performances today and definitely helped themselves out for sure.”

Stack, making her fourth appearance of the season for the Orange and Blue, finished five seconds ahead of senior teammate Maggie Carroll to take individual honors.

“I haven’t been running as fast as I’ve wanted to all season,” Stack said. “I’m definitely glad that I’ve been improving each race though, so I’m happy with that.”

Rasmussen praised sophomore Carolyn Tysse and junior Kendall Nemeth.

“Both of those two have made significant jumps throughout the season,” Rasmussen said. “They really kind of took the opportunity today and ran really well, and I was very happy to see them fight through the entire race and have a good performance.”

The men’s race produced an interesting and unexpected result in which the Illinois cross country club placed second ahead of Illinois State University. Freshman walk-on Phil Pompeia had a surprising performance as he led the Illini claiming fourth overall.

“I thought they ran pretty solid. For the young guys it’s good to just continue to get experience,” men’s head coach Wendel McRaven said. “We got a bunch of guys that got some experience, were able for the most part to end their season on a high note.”