The Lake Forest College cross country teams competed Wheaton College's Gil Dodds Invitational Friday evening with the Forester women placing ninth and the men 13th.

The average time of the Foresters' top five runners in both the women's and men's races was at least two minutes faster than last week's mark.

Lettia Hoda led the women's team and placed 28th out of 179 runners overall. Her 6-kilometer time of 23:17.7 is the second-fastest of her career and ranks 24th in program history.

A pair of freshmen were next for the Foresters with Gabriela Tamamidis finishing 47th overall in 24:23.9 and Amelia Long 63rd with a time of 24:54.7. Sophie Graham was just seven places back in 25:09.2 and Eleanor Clark rounded out the top five in 76th at 25:38.

The University of Chicago won the women's team competition in convincing fashion with 15 of the top 16 runners and just 19 points. Cornell College was the runner-up with 99. Lake Forest's 217 points were between eighth-place Millikin University (209) and 10th-place Carroll University (230).

Earlier in the meet Owen Lashenik paced the Lake Forest men with an 8-kilometer clocking of 27:13.6, which was good for 48th in the 248-runner field. Demos Manoukis was next in 27:41.3 and 69th overall and Khalil Crosby was also in the top half of finishers with a 105th-place finish and time of 28:27.9.

Chicago also finished first on the men's side with just 22 points while second-place North Central College finished with 86. The Foresters'tally of 347 put them just behind Carroll and ahead of Concordia University Chicago in the 19-team field.

Lake Forest will be off next weekend before competing in Augustana College's Brissman-Lundeen Invitational in Rock Island, Illinois, on October 3.