Ellingson sets school record, Simpson 16th at Drews/Neubauer Invite

WEST SALEM, Wis. - Competing against teams from all divisions of the NCAA, NAIA and NJCAA, Catie Ellingson turned in a career performance and the Simpson women's cross country team ran to a 16th-place finish of 27 teams at the 2010 Jim Drews/Tori Neubauer Invitational on Saturday.

Hosted by UW-La Crosse, the race featured 450 runners on the Maple Grove Golf Course. North Dakota State won the invitational with 82 points, followed by the University of Minnesota's "B" team (107) and No. 25 Luther (114). Simpson had 488 points, behind NCAA Division II Winona State (445) and ahead of the Wisconsin Track Club (505) and Division II Minnesota State (509).

After finishing outside of the top-10 for the first time this season at the Dan Huston Invitational last weekend in Waverly, Ellingson returned to her comfort zone with a third place finish Saturday. She completed the 6km course in a school-record time of 21:37.3, breaking her own record of 21:39 set at the 2008 Iowa Conference Championships.

Ellingson finished only 3.3 seconds behind medalist Amy Jo Thorne of North Dakota State and 2.4 seconds behind St. Olaf's Maren Westby. She finished ahead of Wartburg's Lori Tlach, who came in eight places ahead of Ellingson at the Dan Huston Invite last weekend.

Simpson's No. 2 finisher, Jade Osborne placed 150th (24:11.9). Annie Hills placed 181st (24:32.3), Erin Guzman placed 233rd (25:12.5) and Signe Mayland placed 244th (25:17.5). Jayde Boyle came in 246th (25:18.5) and Ashley Drogo took 268th (25:30.7) to round out the varsity finishers.

Simpson enjoys a week off before the Iowa Conference Championships in Dubuque on Oct. 30.