Highland cross country team hit the road on Friday to travel to Chicago for their next meet to continue their season.

Scotties competed at the Loyola Lakefront Invitational hosted by Loyola University-Chicago and put forth a strong performance competing against some top level competition that represented nine different states and two different countries, while also coming from all different levels including NCAA Division I.

In the soggy, rainy and muddy conditions the Scotties posted 10 personal bests out of all 15 runners in action. As a team the Highland men finished 17^th out of 31 total teams, while the women placed 22nd out of 30 overall; of the seven NJCAA schools in action the Scotties finished second finishing only behind Lansing who ranks 11^th in the Nation polls.

Leading the way for the Scottie men on the day was Vicente Correia who paced Highland with a time of 27:49.11 to place 74^th out of 274 total runners. Javon Watkins continued to help lead the charge for the Scotties this season as he finished 112^th with a time of 28:26.78, while Joshua Camp and Nick Cisneros each registered 130^th and 133^rd place finishes with times of 28:47.01 and 28:51.86.

Deiondre Williams, Maxson Muenks and Liam Jones behind times of 29:13.50, 29:19.27 and 29:20.28 finishing 150^th, 153^rd and 157^th place. For Jones it was a personal record by nearly two minutes. Ryan Ringer and Jean Dieuvil finished out the action for the Scotties posting times of 30:10.02 and 33:33.37 to place 185^th and 239^th.

On the women's side of competition Highland was led by Evelin Santaclara who in her first collegiate race posted a time of 20:52.08 to earn 88^th place out of 281 runners. De'Janay Davis notched a time of 21:58.70 to finish 138^th, while Leah Wagner earned 152^nd place with a time of 22:10.70. Octavia Wright, Jennifer Lincoln and Tiana Bowen also competed for the Scotties finishing with times of 23:05.68, 23:32.54 and 24:19.63 to place 194^th, 212^th and 230^th.

Highland cross country Head Coach, Chad Clevenger was happy with the Scotties performance over the weekend. "We approached the weekend well and embraced the wet muddy course. That can be a challenge when you go in knowing the conditions are not favorable to top times, but we did a great job embracing it." Clevenger also thought that both Jones and Santaclara were strong with their performances stating "he really stepped up and carried others with him" when talking about Jones and thought Santaclara performed well in her first college race.

Scotties will have a week off before competing in their final meet before the Region/KJCCC meet as they will travel to Hays, Kansas to compete in the Fort Hays State University Tiger Open on Saturday, October 12^th.