RIPON, WI - The Lake Forest College cross country teams traveled to Ripon, WI Saturday (October 7th) for the six-team Ripon Invitational. Both teams finished fourth on the challenging course that will be the site of the 2000 Midwest Conference Championship Meet on October 28th.

In the women's 5K race, senior Sarah Simpson (Colorado Springs, CO/Palmer), as she has in each race this season, led the Foresters with her 13th place finish and time of 20:29, just 9 seconds slower than her career-best. Fellow senior Michelle Murillo (Des Plaines, IL/Maine West) was 4 places and 13 seconds back. The sophomore trio of Erin Motzer (Libertyville, IL/Libertyville), Melissa Brown (Cape Coral, FL/Cape Coral) and Molly Sutherland (St. Paul, MN/Visitation) finished in 27th, 28th and 34th places, respectively. Freshman Carolyn Mooney (Norcross, GA/ Marist) completed her first 5K race of her career in 24:51 and was chosen by the coaches as the women's Runner of the Week.

 The Forester men placed four in the top 25 and were led for the third time this year by junior Charles Evans (Asheville, NC/Carolina Day School). He completed the grueling 8K course in 30:04 and finished 15th. Sophomore Eric Crawley (Braintree, MA/Thayer) was next for the Foresters in 18th with a time of 30:23. Junior Joe Zemaitis (Scottsdale, AZ/Horizon) finished 22nd and sophomore Rob Bahde (Plainfield, IL/Plainfield) placed 24th, earning him the men's Runner of the Week honors.

Head Coach Mike Wajerski appreciated the effort from both squads. "We had our most difficult training week of the season and then took on an extremely challenging course today, especially the men. I was still hoping for better times on the men's side, but that was probably unrealistic with the size and grade of the main hill on the course that they had to ascend twice. The women only climb that hill once, and it's early in the race. Nine of the eleven women ran season-bests so they're in a little better mood right now than the men."

The Foresters' will not race next Saturday (October 14th) and will prepare for their home meet, the 2nd Annual Forester Invite, on October 21st at 11:00 AM.