If coach David Uhrich ever wondered whether his women's cross country team trained hard enough this summer, he got a definitive answer Friday evening at the 20th annual Bradley Open.
The Marquette women dominated the race, sweeping places one through seven, giving them a victory with a perfect score of 15 points.
"These early meets are always a strong indicator of the girls' training in the offseason. I think they all had outstanding summers," Uhrich said.
Leading the pack of Golden Eagles was junior Michaela Courtney with a personal record of 17:42 for a 5K run. Not far behind Courtney was senior Jodi Jakubek, who finished with a time of 17.46. And if you ask the two athletes, it was running as a pack that helped them finish at the top.
"We all felt good from the start because Michaela, Cassie (Peller) and I were running together for a while," Jakubek said. "After we got separated Michaela and I ran together until the last couple hundred meters. Running together is a huge help."
Sophomore Peller would finish third (17:53), and from the time Courtney crossed the finish line until 21 seconds later, Marquette had cleaned the table. Junior Heidi Lindeman finished fourth (17:58), senior Susie Emond fifth (18:00), junior Allison Sauer sixth (18:00) and sophomore Shannon Oster seventh (18:03).
The open had seven Division I teams, with Loyola (Chi.) finishing behind Marquette with 56 points. Wisconsin-Milwaukee finished third with 89 points in a race that included 169 women.
It is difficult to fathom a better start to the season for Marquette, who entered the race ranked 28th in the country.
"I knew we were good, and this race just shows how much depth we have," Uhrich said.
The course ran fairly straight and fast with almost no hills, something that Courtney said helped her tremendously.
"I'm a middle distance runner in track, so I do well on shorter and straighter courses," Courtney said. "It was a great way for us to start the year."
Marquette does not need to travel far for its next meet this coming Saturday at Wisconsin-Parkside in Kenosha. The Midwest Collegiate Open is another 5K run for the women. Uhrich said that it may be a race for some of the younger runners to show their abilities, a strong indicator that some of the top runners will not participate.
This article was published in The Marquette Tribune on September 13, 2005.