The Marquette men’s and women’s cross country teams finished 7th and 8th, respectively in their races Saturday at the Big East Championships.
Senior Jayne Grebinski led the way for the women with her 39th place finish at a time of 22:35 in the 3.7-mile race. Fellow senior Anna Webber finished 51st at 23:08. Juniors Laurie Dalrymple, Molly Arenberg, Maureen Keane and Olivia Johnson finished 52nd, 53rd, 56th and 59th, respectively.
Arenberg said that the team ran well but can always do better.
“There’s always room for improvement. We went out there and gave it everything we could and some of us had the best races we had all year and some of us didn’t,” Arenberg said. “Coach (Mike Nelson) was really happy with how we did and we tend to be how he is. He was happy with what we put out there and we were too.”
Junior Brice Cleland finished first for the men in 37th place with a time of 26:09. Sophomores Blake Johnson, Dominick Rosario and Peter Bolgert finished 43rd, 50th and 51st, respectively. Freshman Connor Callahan finished 56th at 27:15 in the 4.9-mile race.
Nelson said this was the men’s best race of the year.
“I felt like going through each individual that they either had their best race of the season or close to their best race. I don’t think that we had anyone that ‘bombed’, but we just had solid efforts down the line,” Nelson said.
Callahan said this was his most difficult race ever given the conditions.
“When you took a step, you had to see how much traction you’d get. Going uphill was tough because your feet would just slide and wouldn’t get any grip at all,” Callahan said. “It was rough out there, especially with all the mud.”
Nelson said the men were pleased with the team’s performance given the youth on the team.
“I think the guys were really excited with their 7th place finish, knowing that everybody from the team is going to be back next year,” Nelson said. “Even though we’ve placed seventh over the last three years, those sevenths were with seniors on the team. This was seventh with a bunch of freshman, sophomores and one junior.”
Going into the race, Nelson wanted the men to beat Cincinnati — they did so by one place — and the women to beat Louisville — they lost by one place. Nelson said losing to Louisville wasn’t detrimental nor was beating Cincinnati all it could have been.
“(Cincinnati) didn’t run anywhere close to the way they ran at Pre-Nationals,” Nelson said. “Lousiville kicked our butts at Pre-Nationals so we knew it’d be a tough order to fill. You can’t always compare yourself to what other teams are doing.”
