The Marquette cross country team wrapped up their conference races on Friday morning, as the Golden Eagles competed in the BIG EAST Conference meet in New York City at Van Cortlandt Park. Both the men’s and the women’s team finished in fifth place.
“We competed well, and our student athletes really performed well,” head coach Mike Nelson told GoMarquette.com. “As a collective group, that was our best race of the season. We were pumped up going in to the race and they executed their race plans that we had talked about. They represented Marquette really well.”
The women raced first, it was Marquette’s highest finish since 2014, when they took 5th place. Senior Brittney Feivor led Marquette in the 80-runner race, as she finished 17th with a time of 21:57.8. Junior Jennifer Parker was not far behind, as she finished 20th and had a time of 22:04.9. Both Feivor and Parker were named All-BIG EAST, and for Feivor, she is the first female since Cassie Peller (’05,’06) to be named to the All-BIG EAST team two straight seasons.
Rounding out the remainder of the Golden Eagles’ top seven was junior Jessica Parker, who finished 30th with a time of 22:37.5, junior Meghan Carroll took 36th with a time of 23:02.1, and senior Clare McDonald finished right behind Carroll in 37th and crossed the finish line in 23:04.3. Sophomore Nora Keller took 47th with a time of 23:26.7 and sophomore Mary Hanson finished in 49th with a time of 23:33.3. Redshirt senior star Kellie Greenwood did not enter the race.
Head coach Mike Nelson was pleased with the results of the ladies, as he noted the difficult course and weather conditions.
“The women really moved up the second half of the race,” Nelson said. “It was a tight team battle and in the second half with each girl seemingly moving up a few spots, and that was really key. It was great to see them pretty close together and see them working as a pack. For each of them to be able to move up throughout the race and be able to execute the race plan like we discussed, it was great to see.”
Providence, the No. 4 team in the country, took home the team title for the second straight season.
On the men’s side, Marquette also had a solid showing at the BIG EAST meet, as the men also took fifth place. Alec Miller took 18th in the 8K race with a time of 25:51.4, and a 5:04 mile time. Miller improved by ten places from last season, where he finished 28th. As a result of the improvement, for the first time in his career, Miller was named All-BIG EAST.
Miller’s fellow teammates were solid throughout the race and held their own. Freshman Daniel Pederson took second on the team and 25th overall with a time of 25:40.3, while junior Jack Carpenter notched his best performance of the season so far, taking third on the team and 31st overall and crossed the line with a time of 26:03.2 Right behind Carpenter was sophomore Brad Eagan, who finished 32nd and ran the race in a time of 26:04.5. Sophomore Jon Klaiber took 41st and finished with a time of 26:23.5. Sophomore Ryan Burd was not far behind Klaiber, as he finished in 45th with a time of 26:25.7. Junior Aric Miller sneaked into the top 50, as he finished 49th with a time of 26:31.6.
Coach Nelson also was happy with the performance of the top three and also said that the other runners did well against elite competition and can be used as momentum for NCAA Regionals.
For junior Jack Carpenter, the race was a launching point not only due to his high finish, but also the performance from his teammates.
“I think everyone ran really well today,” Carpenter said. “Last year, we had our best performance of the season at conference, and this year, we crushed what we did last year, so it was a great feeling out there.”
“Having a guy like Alec leading the pack really helped me and pushed me during the middle half of the race. That was the best finish I’ve had since freshman year as well, so it was nice knowing that all the hard work near the end of the season as paid off. For me, it was a very gratifying experience. We’re looking forward to Madison and the NCAAs.”
Georgetown won the team title for the second straight season.
Marquette’s next race will be Nov. 11th at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional meet in Verona, Wisconsin, at the Zimmer XC course.