The Marquette cross country teams ended their season Friday afternoon on a high note. The women finished 10th overall, while the men finished 13th at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional meet. It was the highest finish since 2008 for the women, their best finish since 2011 for the men. Although the Golden Eagles had a strong finish it was not enough for either team to advance to the NCAA Finals.
The women ran first, and it was Brittney Feivor leading the Golden Eagles again, as the senior and Pleasant Prairie, WI native finished 35th with a time of 20:54.2 and with a pace of 5:36 per mile.
Behind Feivor were the Parker sisters, as junior Jennifer Parker took 53rd with a time of 21:21.9. Junior Jessica Parker took 73rd and crossed the finish line with a time of 21.39.3. Redshirt senior Clare McDonald finished her Marquette career with a time of 21:51.0 and in 81st place. Rounding out the remaining top seven for Marquette were sophmore Mary Hanson, who finished 92nd with a time of 22:01.7, sophomore Nora Keller in 113th with a time of 22:20.9 and junior Meghan Carroll at 117th with a time of 22:24.0.
Mike Nelson, head coach of both the men’s and women’s team, thought that the women ran well in a loaded course with teams that were ranked in the top 25 in the country.
“Overall, I thought we did a tremendous job,” Nelson said. “We really did dig deep and gave our best effort and we really ran for each other.”
“The good thing is that track season starts in three weeks, and we were proud of the way we ran, but we are looking forward to defending our BIG EAST title.”
On the men’s side, for the first time all season it was sophomore Brad Eagan who paced the Golden Eagles in the 8 kilometer race and finished 61st with a time of 31:58.8. Right behind Eagan was junior Alec Miller, who took 63rd with a time of 32:00.7. Freshman Daniel Pederson finished his first year strong and took 69th place with a time of 32:05.2. Sophomore Jon Klaiber was not far behind Pederson, and the Naperville, Illinois native took 85th with a time of 32:22.5. Aric Miller sneaked into the top 100 and took 99th place with a time of 32:35.5. The last two top seven for Marquette were junior Kevin Ryan, who finished 142nd, and junior Jack Carpenter, who finished 163rd with a time of 33:59.8.
Nelson also thought the men ran well despite a slow start.
“They really executed well from a race strategy standpoint,” Nelson said. “At the 2K mark, twenty percent of the race completed, we were in 19th as a team, and we slowly crept up and at the 4K, we were at 18th, and then at the 6K we were at 16th and we finished in 13th place. I was really impressed with the way they moved up with each other throughout the competition, and they just kept fighting.”
Coach Nelson was impressed with the turnaround from last season and is hoping they continue to improve when track and field season arrives in a mere three weeks.
“Overall, I was really impressed with this team both the way we finished the season and how we raced throughout it,” Nelson said. “The only thing you can do is improve from one year to the next, and we were able to do that this season. You can only control helping your athletes get better. Last year at regionals we were 20th on the men’s side, and now we took 13th. Last year we took 17th, and now we finished 10th on the women’s side. I’d say you would have to look at the season as a success. We can take the things that we learned and the success from this season and build upon them for the track season and beyond.”