Elmhurst University Cross Country races towards end of the season

Photo by- Olivia Rueff

The Elmhurst University cross country team crossed the finish line of their season for most of the team at the CCIW Championship. EU hosted the event on Oct. 19 at St. James Farm in Warrenville.

There were high hopes for this year’s season after the women’s team won the CCIW Championship last year, but with many graduates leaving a young team in its wake, the EU cross country team wasn’t able to secure another set of championship rings. 

Wheaton College took home the championship for the women’s 6K and North Central College dominated with all nine of their varsity runners going first through ninth in the 8K. The EU women’s team placed seventh of eight teams at the meet, and the men placed eighth of eight teams.

The loss of seniors last year such as Elita Spadlowski, Emily Clausen, Emily Gilligan, Natalia Hernandez, Jeremy Lodewyck, and Andrew Matuszewski can be seen in the results of both the men’s and the women’s teams, with the teams placing in the bottom half of most of their meets this season.

However, Head Coach Jordan Bartolazzi is still proud of his team for the work that they have put in.

“We don’t feel particularly thrilled with where we landed, but I think we are on the right track and we can continue to improve,” said Bartolazzi after the meet.

He continued,  “I want us to be hungry, and competitive, and think winning is fun. We want to help them keep getting better, but I think there’s so much good to take away.”

The top runner of the meet was senior Alyssa Rafuse. She finished eighth in the varsity race with a time of 23 minutes, and 4 seconds and received First Team All Conference. 

This is the second time Rafuse has gotten this award, receiving it at last year’s championship for finishing second overall.

“I went into this race with the main goal of running a race I could say I was genuinely proud of and stay engaged in the whole time. I was happy to know that I was able to run in the top ten,” said Rafuse.

She continued, “I tried not to put too much pressure on where I was placed, so the fact that I could just trust my training and the practices I’ve put in with the team that I love so much, it’s nice that I could have something that I feel represents all that.”

Photo by- Olivia Rueff

Bartolazzi is just as happy with Alyssa’s race.

“[Alyssa] ran by far the best race of her season, in fact I think she’s the only athlete I ever coached who was First Team All CCIW in back-to-back seasons,” said Bartolazzi. “That’s something I’m really proud of, especially knowing she’s been working herself back up from an injury last spring this whole time.”

There were many other women on the team that had a good race, like sophomore Molly Glover, who broke her personal record (PR) by 30 seconds with a time of 25:23.0. Glover finished fourth overall and first out of the EU women in the open race.

“I’ve never really been in front of people before, so that was a new experience, kinda scary for me, being in front of a pack,” said Glover. “I was very nervous at the beginning of the race, and then I kinda just pushed my anxiety away and just went out there. I feel like that was my breakthrough race and I’m just really proud of how I did.”

The top runners for the men’s team were sophomore Dylan Moran, who finished first of the EU men and 41st overall in the varsity race with a time of 27:12.2, and Freshman Preston Bailey, finishing at 29:29.5 and placing 47th and first of EU men in the open race.

“Some people had really good races, some people had bad races, but I feel like today was a breakthrough day that we needed for a lot of people on this team, so I’m really happy,” said Moran.

Graduate assistant and former team member Matuszewski recognizes the work the team still has to put in, but is looking forward to the progress the team will make.

“I think we have a lot of guys that ran really well today and have progressed really well throughout the season, so even though it might not have been the result we wanted this year, for years to come we’ll have a great team,” said Matuszewski

Even with the results the team had, they stayed positive after the meet. 

They were the loudest group at the awards ceremony when Rafuse was announced in the top ten, and when the EU recipients of the Respect Award were announced, junior Lauren Mack and graduate student Brian Santos.

The Respect Award is given to a member of each team, men and women, in the CCIW, and recipients are

Photo by- Olivia Rueff

nominated by coaches for student-athletes who show good character and inclusiveness in team culture.

Mack is proud to represent that aspect of her team and Santos felt honored to receive the award, but feels the award could go out to the whole team.

“[The team] is just built of a lot of runners that just care too much about this team,” said Santos.

The team illustrated that tight bond throughout the meet by running back and forth on the course to cheer for each Bluejay in the race and with their support afterward.

Their season will officially end with the top seven of each team racing at the NCAA Regionals meet on Nov. 12.