The Lake Forest College track team traveled just north of the state line on Saturday to compete in Carthage College's Firebird First Invitational.

The Foresters' performance at the meet was highlighted by a victory for freshman Payton Ross in the men's 55m hurdles. His prelim time of 8.36 seconds was the best out of a dozen competitors in the event and he turned in a clocking of 8.23 seconds in the final to secure the victory.

Four other members of the men's team earned points by placing in the top six, including freshman Jake Bianchi and junior Matthew Lungu, who each accomplished the feat in two events. Bianchi was the runner-up in the long jump with a leap of 6.60m (21' 7.75") and finished sixth in the triple jump at 12.10m (39' 8.75"). After placing fifth in the 400m with the fastest indoor time in program history (54.02), Lungu finished third in the 200m in 23.74.

Sophomore Mason Wright was just .16 seconds slower than Lungu in the 200m and placed sixth while junior Bart Brophy was seventh in the 880m with a career-best time of 2:02.80.

On the women's side, freshman Lettia Hoda finished fourth in the 3000m in 11:20.94 while seventh-place finishes were registered by junior Delfina Jorgensen in the mile (6:20.04) and sophomore One Kenosi in the 400m (1:16.60).

Lake Forest will return to Kenosha next Saturday for the University of Wisconsin-Parkside's Lake Michigan Open, which will begin at 10:00 a.m.