TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - Nick Perkins led the way for the IUPUI men's cross country team at Saturday's John McNichols Invitational, hosted by Indiana State at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course. Perkins finished 36th of 237 runners, covering the 8K course in a time of 25:29.2. 

The Jaguars, still rounding into form with some key contributors returning from injury, finishing 11th of 19 teams overall with 241 points. Illinois edged second-place Toledo by 10 points and third-place Purdue by 19 points for the team title. Toledo's Dennis Mutai collected the individual tape with a time of 24:17.7. 

"We've got a lot of guys that are struggling with an injury or coming back from time off right now, but it's early and everyone on our team left that course knowing we will do better," Perkins said. "We still had plenty of fantastic individual performances, but we want to see what we can be at full strength and I am excited to see how we do in the future."

Behind Perkins, Will Clark, the reigning #HLXC Freshman of the Week, clocked a time of 25:38.5 to finish 44th overall. Eric Petersen and Alex Alba finished back-to-back in 58th and 59th, respectively, clocking times of 25:54.6 and 25:55.4. Matthew Leppert rounded out IUPUI's scoring five, placing 70th at 26:04.1. 

Mitchell Gits, coming back from injury, was 111th at 26:49.5, and Matt Mitsch finished 120th at 27:04.4. Mitchell Rans posted a time of 27:11.7 as IUPUI's No. 8 finisher. 

The Jaguars will return to action on Sept. 30 when they compete in Notre Dame's Joe Piane Invitational in South Bend, Ind.