Barham Leads Four Wildcats With Personal Records At Illini Classic

1/16/2016 8:46:00 PM | Women's Cross Country & Track

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Led by senior Elena Barham's second-place finish in the 3,000m event, Northwestern kicked off its 2016 indoor track season Saturday at the Illini Classic with four Wildcats recording personal records.

2016 ILLINI CLASSIC RESULTS

The Wildcats took on a field at the UI Armory that included the host Illini, Northern Illinois, St. Louis, Butler, Eastern Illinois, Bradley, Loyola, and Western Michigan.

Barham, who registered Northwestern's fastest 5,000m and 6,000m cross country times during the fall, finished second in Saturday's 3,000m event. The Madison, Wisconsin, native clocked a personal record in the event, finishing in 10:09.36.

Head coach 'AHavahla Haynes was pleased with her team's performance in its first competition since the end of the fall cross country campaign.

"Each woman went into their respective race with a defined pace knowing the objective was to find rhythm and be competitive within their heat," said Haynes. "All of the women achieved that today. Being our season opener everyone did a workout on Friday with the mindset to work extremely hard to achieve individual and team goals."

Barham was followed in the 3,000m field by classmate Allison Jacobsen in 13^th (10:34.01), Brooke Pigneri (10:35.97), Ellen Schmitz (10:41.10), Elena Miller (10:47.01), Grace Kelly (10:54.88), Ashley Ko (10:58.50) and Victoria Bianco (11:32.47). Pigneri, Kelly and Ko all crossed the line with personal records.

Competing in her first track event for the Wildcats, freshman Mary Orders was the lone Northwestern entrant in the One Mile event, finishing in 5:40.11.

Northwestern will have two weeks off from competition before a split-squad weekend on Feb. 6. One group of Wildcats will race that day at the Windy City Invitational hosted by the University of Chicago, while another will head to South Bend to run in Notre Dame's Meyo Invitational.