The cross country season officially came to a close this Saturday, as the men’s team finished 13th out of 29 teams and the women’s team finished 17th out of 31 in the NCAA Great Lakes Regional in Madison.
The men had their best five runners finish in the top 100, Alex Gill being the last one at 99th. He set a personal record with a time of 32:43 for the 10k race.
It was a strong last showing for seniors Ryan Burd and Daniel Pederson, as they both finished with personal records of 31:54 and 31:52, respectively. The runners finished two places from each other at 56th and 58th out of 270 runners.
“We probably left about 75 points on the guys’ side. … We had a couple of kids start out too hard, and it cost them in the end as they ran out of gas a little bit,” interim head coach Sean Birren said in a university news release. “We still had three guys run (personal record times), and our seniors got to close out their college careers successfully.”
On the women’s side, senior captain Caitlin McGauley finished on a high note, placing 92nd overall out 217 total runners, a 20-spot improvement over her 112th-place finish at last year’s Great Lakes Regional.
Junior Emily Foley was the top finisher for the team, placing 84th at 22:07. Her teammates were not far behind; no runner finished more than 15 seconds behind the other. Sophomore Kendall Pfrimmer set a personal record with 22:18 in the 6k and finished in 97th.
“I’m definitely proud of how our student-athletes have competed all year. … Both teams took a significant step forward from last year and left everything they had on the course,” Birren said in the news release.
With the season now over, it will soon be time to start looking at the fast-approaching indoor track and field season. The first meet will be the Blue and Gold Invitational hosted in South Bend, Indiana, by Notre Dame Dec. 6.
This story was written by Jackson Gross. He can be reached at [email protected].
