Indiana men’s and women’s cross country placed in the top 10 at the Spartan Invite Big Ten Preview, showing promising results for the season ahead. The meet was the second event of the Hoosiers’ season. The men’s team placed sixth overall while the women’s team finished seventh overall.
Eight runners on the men’s side competed in their first 8-kilometer race of the season, with six runners clocking personal bests in their second meet of the season.
Sophomore Dylon Nalley finished third overall with a time of 23:51.0. Redshirt junior Garrett Hicks recorded a personal best of 24:42.3 while junior Brayden Henkle and redshirt junior Andrew Mangum also set personal bests with times of 25:26.3 and 26:00.0, respectively. Freshman Ahmed Saleh made his debut and added points to the board to improve Indiana’s performance.
On the women’s side, junior Lily Myers finished 15th with a time of 20:53.7 and was the first Hoosier to finish. Additionally, freshmen Ava Jarrell and Alayna Todnem ran against other Big Ten runners for the first time and finished at 21:54.3 and 22:18.0, respectively, with Jarrell earning points for the Hoosiers.
Indiana’s men’s and women’s athletes combined for 11 personal-bests.
The Hoosiers are set to compete at the Loyola Lakefront Invitational on Oct. 3 in Chicago. With about three weeks to prepare, both squads will look to build on the momentum from this meet.
For the men, continuing to close the gap between their front-runners and the rest of the pack will be key. On the women’s side, the freshmen bring promising talent, especially with several scoring points this early in their careers. The upcoming invitational will be a competitive showing, with 14 teams on the men’s side and 16 on the women’s. Among the competitors are Wisconsin, Boston College and Washington, whose men’s and women’s teams were all ranked in the top five NCAA Division I preseason regional rankings.
While East Lansing served as a solid benchmark for where the squad stands, Loyola will be another chance for the Hoosiers to test themselves against high-level competition. With momentum on their side and over two weeks to prepare, Indiana hopes to translate early progress into lasting results.
