SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Senior Ellie Cates led the way and eight members of the IU Indianapolis women's cross country team registered new personal best efforts as the Jaguars competed at Notre Dame's Joe Piane Invitational in South Bend on Friday (Oct. 4). Cates spun the fifth-best 5,000m time in program history at 17:49.6 to shed six seconds off her prior best, placing 23rd of 183 competitors. 

Cates was the team's top performer from the opening gun, staying among the top-20 for the duration of the race.

"It was beautiful weather out there today for a lot of us to PR and make some moves on some conference teams," Cates said. "We do have some things we need to work on, but we are going to keep doing what we do."

Behind Cates, Carina Alanis shattered her personal best time with an 18:56.8 performance. Alanis entered the season having never broken 20-minutes at the collegiate level, but took 45 seconds off her prior best on Friday. Freshman Ella Colclesser ran a personal best time of 19:17 to shed 16 seconds off her previous best and classmate Julianna Crow ran 19:35.2, taking more than a minute off her previous record. 

Grace Bragg rounded out the team's scoring five at 19:38.1 and Hannah Robbins followed with a personal best time of 20:08.3. Julynne Spidell shattered her previous best time by running 20:17.8 and just behind her was Mary Fritch with a new PR time of 20:18.7. Ella Tamburrino capped the team's entries with a time of 21:25.8, taking nearly 90 seconds off her previous best time. 

TAMUCC's Elizabeth Khatevi ran a winning time of 16:48.1, edging the Indiana State duo of Emma Gresham (16:58.6) and Erica Barker (17:09.1). Indiana State won the team title with 85 points, beating second-place Appalachian State by 21 points. The Jaguars placed 20th of the 23 teams in the Gold Division with 508 points. 

The Jaguars will return to action on Friday, Oct. 18 when they participate in the Angel Mounds Invitational in Evansville, Ind.