Cross country team emerges from meet

In a meet like the Pre-NCAA Invitational in Ames, Iowa, Saturday, most teams just try to not get lost in the crowd.\nThe No. 22 men's team emerged from the 53 teams at the meet with a 17th place finish. \nSenior Aaron Gillen led the Hoosiers with a 49th place finish and a time of 31:53.5 for the 10K, his best time by 30 seconds. Not far behind were sophomores Chris Powers and Chad Andrews, in 81st and 89th place, respectively. Freshman Bart Phariss and senior Dan Billish rounded out IU's top five runners.\nIndiana had been hoping to place in the top 15 at the meet, but with the competition including more than 20 nationally ranked teams, the young team was pleased with their 17th place finish.\n"It was a good day-bad day thing," men's coach Robert Chapman said in a press release. On one hand, it was a good day in the sense that we beat certain teams, which will help us to get to national competition. On the other hand, it was a bad day in that we let teams beat us that shouldn't have. We could have easily been tenth or eleventh. A positive is that we have earned enough ranking points that we will get an at-large bid to the NCAA Championships." \nIn the women's field of 56 teams, IU placed 37th.\nReversing their usual finishes, sophomore Allyson Hammond came in first for the women in 85th place, followed by sophomore Amanda Bell in 117th. They finished the 6K in 22:27.4 and 22:44.5, respectively.\nRounding out IU's top five were junior Stephanie Magley (23:51.3), sophomore Lauren Weddell (23:58.7), and junior Erin Womble (24:16.2). \n"This entire season has been a learning experience for these girls," women\'s coach Judy Bogenschutz said. They are still learning how to race in such large, fast, competitive races. It is just a matter of them putting what they do in practice into a race. I\'m not discouraged because their practice times astound me. I think they will respond and we are going to focus on Big Tens because this team is capable of really mixing it up there"