St. Francis (IL) News
Sun, Oct 25, 2009 - [Women's Cross Country]
Renee Cholyway took 16 seconds off her previous-best time to lead USF to a 19th-place finish Saturday.
Renee Cholyway took 16 seconds off her previous-best time to lead USF to a 19th-place finish Saturday.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. --- Sophomore Courtney Madden (Plainfield Central H.S./Plainfield, IL) and freshmen Torin Mallonee (Xavier H.S./Cedar Rapids, IA) and Renee Cholyway (Regina H.S./Warren, MI) all turned in personal bests for the season on Saturday to lead University of St. Francis to a 16th-place finish at the 21-team NAIA Great Lakes Challenge Cross Country Invitational on Saturday.

Madden placed second on the team and 76th overall out of 223 finishers with a time of 20:19, which eclipsed her previous best of 20:30 by 11 seconds.  She also finished just 19 seconds behind USF lead runner Meghan Bannatz (Novi H.S./Novi, MI), who recorded a time of 20:00 and the No. 57 overall placement.

Three other Saints to score were bunched just 17 seconds apart, including Mallonee and Cholyway.  Mallonee took 12 seconds off her top time with a 21:04 (120th overall) on the 5K course, while Cholyway displayed the most improvement (16 seconds) of any Saint with her 21:08 (126th).  Junior Brittany McAllister (Plainfield South H.S./Crest Hill, IL) finished just ahead of that duo at 20:51 to place third on the team and 107th overall.
 
Cedarville University (Ohio) captured the meet led by the top two runners in the field in Katie Gillespie (17:41) and Lydia Wong (17:52).  The Yellow Jackets totaled 59 points to finish ahead of second-place Spring Arbor University (Mich.) (76 points) and third-place Indiana Wesleyan University (105).  USF finished with a total of 416 points. 

The meet was the last race prior to the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships, which the Saints will host on November 7 at 10:30 a.m. at Dellwood Park in Lockport, Ill.