PEORIA, Ill. – Saint Louis' men's and women's cross country teams both placed second on Friday at the Bradley Intercollegiate Championships at Detweiller Park in Peoria, Ill.

The men's squad was led once again by Manny Vela, who finished the 8K in a fifth-place time of 24:43.80. Leading the Bills in the women's 3-mile was Emily Morden, who finished eighth overall in a time of 17:08.90.

"I was satisfied with the way the men competed today," SLU head coach Jon Bell said. "Coming into this meet and looking at the teams who were scheduled to compete, I figured we should have been no worse than second. Bradley is ranked seventh in the region, and they've been one of the better teams in the Midwest the last few years, so beating them on their home course was going to be a challenge. Our freshmen competed well in their first 8K, and Brady Huggins competed well as our No. 5 while running an 8k PR. 

"The women placing second is also about where I thought we would be. However, Bradley put seven runners in front of our No. 1, which I did not expect. The women's training has gone well the last few weeks, but as a team they looked a little off tonight. Clara Gillen and Renee Ballard ran excellent races, so those performances were highlights."

Also scoring for the men was Lukasz Iwanowski, who finished 10th overall in a time of 25:09.40. Ronnie Brown and Bora Celiknal placed 12th and 13th with times of 25:13.10 and 25:18.20, respectively. Brady Huggins was the fifth Billiken finisher with a 20th-place time of 25:52.20.

On the women's side, a trio of runners finished behind Morden in 13th-15th place – Renee Ballard (17:20.20), Clara Gillen (17:21.30) and Sophia Pelligreen (17:31.10). Starr Scott rounded out the scoring for SLU with a 20th-place time of 17:49.50.

Saint Louis is back in action on Friday, Sept. 26, for the Gans Creek Classic at the University of Missouri.