Racing against a field full of state schools in Saturday’s Greater Louisville Cross Country Classic may have pushed the Washington University cross-country teams out of their normal top-three perch, but it also provided the experience of racing against elite competition.

As one of nine non-Division I squads in a pool of 31, the No. 3 men’s team placed 19th while the No. 3 women’s team finished 28th out of 31 as one of only three non-Division I schools.

“This year was the best it’s ever been because that course is the host for this year’s Division I nationals,” head coach Jeff Stiles said. “So [the University of Washington, whose women’s team] is ranked No. 1 in the nation in Division I, was there. They actually didn’t even win the meet—that’s how good of a meet it was.”

The University of Texas, No. 6 in Division I men’s cross-country, finished only fifth, Stiles added.

Junior Kevin Sparks led the way for the male Bears, placing 30th out of 255 runners. He recorded a time of 24:29.70 on the 8K course. Two weeks earlier, Sparks had been the team’s seventh-fastest runner at the Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville meet, but Stiles expected him to pace the Bears at Louisville.

“At the last meet, he stayed back and ran with a different teammate and ran almost more of a workout…same thing with Lucy Cheadle,” Stiles said.

Cheadle, a sophomore who earned All-American honors in cross-country and track last season, finished 44th out of 267 runners in the Louisville women’s 6K race, running a time of 17:33.54.

Rounding out the top five for the women’s team were freshman Ellen Toennies (196th, 18:53.19), sophomore Beatrice Gantzer (217th, 19:18.82), junior Lizzy Handschy (221st, 19:22.58) and freshman Bri Tiffany (231st, 19:31.90).

Junior Elizabeth Worley believes that the competitiveness of the Louisville meet is a valuable experience for the team’s younger runners, such as freshmen Toennies and Tiffany.

“I think it just gives them a really good confidence boost,” Worley said. “I know that some of them come into collegiate running and have had experiences that they’ve run at really big, competitive meets before, and some of them haven’t. I think it’s really important that they get exposed to that type of environment.”

On the men’s side, two Bears beside Sparks also broke into the top half of the Division I-heavy field. Senior David Hamm (25:27.71) and sophomore Drew Padgett (25:27.98) finished 116th and 118th, respectively. Sophomores Ryan Senci (161st, 25:55.09) and Brett Baker (171st, 26:00.87) completed the Bears’ top five.

Stiles felt that the team improved in a meet against elite opponents.

“What we get out of it is the experience of not being in control,” he said. “You have a small meet, we can mop up and kind of control and dominate and all those things. But it’s one thing to be able to go out and run out against people that are much better than you and still execute and learn how to do that in a bigger environment. What they walk away with is experience.”

Worley said the meet provided good preparation for important races down the road.

“I think it gives us a very good insight into future meets such as conference, regionals and nationals in the sense that those are going to be big, crowded meets,” she said. “And I think being in that type of atmosphere is a really good experience for us.”

Wash. U. has a week off before the Oshkosh Brooks Invitational in Wisconsin on Oct. 13. Two weekends after Oshkosh, the Bears begin their playoff meet schedule with the University Athletic Association championships.