USF's Smith, McElyea qualify

LOCKPORT - Freshman Sean Smith and junior Michael McElyea placed second and eighth to qualify for the NAIA Championships and lead the University of St. Francis men's team to a second-place finish among 10 teams in the CCAC Cross County Championships at Dellwood Park.

The USF women placed fifth among eight teams but none of the Saints finished high enough to advance to the national meet.

Smith covered the hilly 8-kilometer course at Dellwood in 26:49.12 and finished 20 seconds behind first-place runner Kenny MacDonough of team champion Olivet Nazarene. The Tigers easily captured team honors with their five top runners finishing among the top seven individuals.

McElyea ran a time of 27:24.29 and was one of the top five runners not on the winning team which earned him his trip, along with Smith, to Vancouver, Wash., in two weeks for the NAIA Championships.

Junior Adam Yost placed 16th overall (28:19.03) and narrowly missed earning all-conference recognition.

The USF women were paced by sophomore Courtney Madden (Plainfield Central) who finished 11th overall (20:31.30) in the women's 5-kilometer race and just missed a spot in the field of national qualifiers. Senior Meghan Bannatz missed her bid for a fourth straight trip to the national meet as she finished 17th overall with a mark of 20:45.34.

Saint Xavier won the women's team title.

Bradley 68, Lewis 63 -- At Peoria, the Lewis University men's basketball team dished out plenty of punches against Bradley in their exhibition game, but it was the Braves that provided the knock-out blow, using a 13-2 run in the second half to earn the victory at Carver Arena on Sunday afternoon.

Lewis' Dennis Thomas and Chris McClellan combined for eight 3-pointers and 37 points. Thomas led all scorers with 21 points on 7-for-12 shooting, including 4-for-6 from beyond the three-point arc, while McClellan was 4-for-8 from long range and finished with 16.

Free throws proved to be the difference in the game, as the Braves converted 87.5 percent (21-for-24) of their attempts, while Lewis shot a meager 38.5 percent (5-for-13) from the charity stripe.

Marty Strus added 6 points and 15 rebounds.

Illinois 75, Lewis 40 -- At Champaign, Kelly Monaco scored 11 points with the help of three 3-pointers, however Illinois defeated Lewis in an exhibition game on Sunday afternoon at Assembly Hall.

Kelly Dianis totaled 10 points. Jenny Turpel finished with 7 points, 7 rebounds and a block in 23 minutes.

Jenna Smith led Illinois with 13 points.