SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The Creighton women's cross country team finished 16th at the adidas Notre Dame Cross Country Invitational on Friday at the Notre Dame Golf Course in South Bend, Ind. The men's team finished 19th. Both teams competed in the 54-year-old meet's Gold Division. Grand Valley State University won the  20-team women's race and North Central College won the men's race, besting a field of 21. The entire meet (Gold Division and Blue Division) consisted of more than 45 schools including 17 nationally-ranked teams on either the men's or women's side.

The top finisher for the Creighton women was freshman Hannah Connealy, who finished 64th with a time of 19:12 on the 5,000-meter course, the best 5K time of her short career by more than a minute. Connealy has led the women's team in every meet she's raced this year. The women's individual champion was Ayla Mitchell from Oshkosh, who ran the course in 17:31. There were 162 total runners in the race.

The second Jays runner to cross the finish line was freshman Kara Telfer. She finished five spots behind Connealy in 69th place with a time of 19:15. Senior Melissa Greig finished 106th (19:53), freshman Ashley Loerts finished 111th (19:56) and junior Jacque Parker finished 114th (19:58) to round out the scoring for the Jays.

The men's team was led by sophomore Stephen VanGampleare who finished 102nd on the five-mile course. His time was 26:58. The men's race, with 173 runners, was won by Matt Graham from DePaul University with a time of 24:34.

Freshman Mike Hitt was Creighton's next-best finisher. His time of 27:36 was good enough for 126th place. Bluejay junior Jared Dittman finished 140th with a time of 27:55 and sophomore Casey Jergenson came in 142nd in his first race of the season with a time 27:58, and Creighton's fifth runner was freshman Mike Neisius, who finished 144th with a time of 28:03.

Both teams travel to Vermillion, S.D., next Friday for the Tim Young Open.