Freshmen gain experience during unscored meet

In her first race of the season, senior Jessica Gall displayed why she was named an All-American last year.\nRecording the sixth fastest time ever on the IU home course and tying her personal best, Gall and the IU women's cross country team competed Saturday against Purdue, Butler, Michigan and Huntington University at the Indiana Open.\n"Lindsay (Hattendorf) and Jess ran a nice steady race, which is what I kind of wanted them to do," said IU coach Judy Wilson. "They ran pretty well for this time of year. With this course, if you go out too hard, you pay."\nGall's time of 17:40 was good for a second-place finish to Michigan's Erin Webster, who bested the field with a time of 17:14.\n"The race went well. This is our first real competition with the whole team, and it was a good first step for the season," Gall said. "It was good for us to run against some other Big Ten teams and see what's out there."\nThough the race was not scored, it was the Hoosiers' first test of the season as they battled Michigan, the reigning Big Ten champion.\n"We weren't going out there saying, 'Oh, we have to kick Michigan,'" Hattendorf said. "We were just going out there to compare ourselves to Michigan to see where they're at, see where we're at."\nThe Hoosiers competed with 10 of their runners, seven of whom finished with career-best times. Gall was followed by Hattendorf, who finished fifth with a time of 18:10, and sophomore Wendi Robinson, who finished in seventh place, eight seconds behind Hattendorf.\nSince the race was not scored, each school was able to use several freshmen runners unattached in case they want to redshirt them later in the season.\n"I was really impressed with Hailee Elmore," Wilson said. "She's never run cross country before, and she took off something like 30 seconds from her time last week. We ran her unattached, but I think we're probably going to run her in an IU uniform."\nAlso finishing for IU were freshmen Kellee Lemcke (19:01) and Bliss Cook (20:30), sophomores Stephanie Greer (18:40), Ashley Sommer (19:14) and Kristina Trcka (19:17), and juniors Maura Ratcliff (19:54) and Jackie Davis (20:32).\nAs the team heads to Terre Haute for the Indiana Intercollegiates this weekend, one of the concerns for the team is to stay healthy, Wilson said. Last season, injuries to Gall, Hattendorf, Robinson and Greer kept the Hoosiers from qualifying for the NCAA Championships as a team. So far, the first two meets have kept the Hoosiers free from injury.\n"It feels good that everyone's healthy, but then again the season's still early so we just want to make sure that we're doing everything we need to do," Hattendorf said. "We need to listen to our bodies and not be the hero now but be the hero when Big Tens come around"