CHARLESTON, Ill. – Spencer Hielkema led SIUE men's cross country at the EIU Walk Crawford Open Friday. Hielkema was SIUE's top runner in the 8K race in 26 minutes and 12 seconds.
The season-opening men's cross country meet led to a fourth-place finish for the Cougars. Indiana State won the meet with 39 points, followed by host Eastern Illinois (46), Illinois-Chicago (48), SIUE (126), Marquette (128), Vincennes (168) and and Kaskaskia College (210).
"Our team did great at EIU today," said Assistant Coach Josh Wolfe. "For the first competition of the year, we just wanted to be competitive and see where we are after a long summer of base training".
Both Tyler Guthrie (17th/26:20) and Jackson Edwards (36th/27:02) ran career-best times in the 8K race. Other SIUE finishers were Cameron Woodward (27:20), Blake Panagos (27:31), and Zach Walters (27:55).
"We had a number of career bests, which isn't common for the first meet of the year, and shows how hard our group has been working," added Wolfe. "We'll have a strong training segment and be ready for our next meet at Illinois State".
Next up for SIUE is the Redbird Invite on September 16th.
