Sept. 19, 2011

MILWAUKEE - Junior Jake Reilly of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's cross country team has been named the Horizon League Runner of the Week, the league office announced today.

This is the first weekly award of Reilly's career, while he is coming off his second-straight first-place finish of the young season. At the Falcon Invite hosted by Concordia University, he ran a season-best time of 25:31.9 to win the meet by almost 12 seconds over teammate Thomas Wells. Reilly's time was nearly a full minute off his time on the same course from one year ago.

"That's a huge improvement for Jake, but, to me, it's a tribute to him consistently doing his summer running," Milwaukee head coach Pete Corfeld said. "He said he put in the work this summer because he wants results and here we have one. To me, this is a tribute to his hard work and it's paying off right away."

"Besides just shaving a minute off his time from last year, Jake really handled the race well. It didn't affect him much afterward and that's because of his training."

Reilly's efforts guided the Panthers to an impressive first-place finish at the meet.

One week ago, he ran a time of 25:55.8 to take first in a field of 140 runners at the Midwest Invitational in Kenosha.

Part of the Reilly's progress is attributed to running along side assistant coach Nate Weiland.

"It's really nice to have an elite runner assisting me," Corfeld said. "I like to say to the athletes, `the easiest way to get better is to run with somebody that's better than you.' You can have a good attitude and train hard but ultimately, having somebody to push you is a big benefit and Nate provides that."

The Waunakee native has now paced the Panthers five times in his collegiate career.