The No. 25 Wisconsin women's cross country team met expectations Saturday at Pre-Nationals, placing ninth in the Blue Race - one of two equally strong races - at Terra Haute, Ind.
UW scored 288 points in a field of 38 teams. No. 1 Stanford won the race with 102 points and Florida State's Susan Kuijken set the course record in 19:55.5, which stood for only 40 minutes until Jenny Barringer of Colorado brought it down to 19:48.3 in the White Race.
Sophomore Hanna Grinaker and redshirt freshman Cassie Hintz, a reliable Badger tandem, finished the six-kilometer course in 20:44 and 20:46 for 16th and 19th place, respectively.
Grinaker and Hintz have been UW's top two finishers at every meet they participated in and have yet to be separated by more than three places. Hintz bested Grinaker in the last two meets.
The third Badger to cross the finish, junior Gwen Jorgensen, captured 66th place in 21:22. Next was junior Sarah Hurley, who went 21:34 for 90th.
Senior Ann Detmer made her season debut and rounded out UW scoring with a 97th place finish in 21:42. Fellow senior Amanda Ganser was right behind, running 21:43 for 98th.
Wisconsin senior Kait Hurley ran 22:05.6 for 134th. Although her performance was slightly under par, she out-leaned Marika Walker, North Carolina's fifth runner, who also ran 22:05.6. Hurley's last-ditch effort to pass Walker put UW one point ahead of NC State, who also happened to fall one place behind the Badgers in the polls.
Freshman Leah Coyle and junior Maggie Collision hit varsity times in the open race, running 21:44 and 21:53 for eight and 12th, respectively.
Men's recap
The men's cross country team rested their top three runners at Pre-Nationals and will wait until the Big Ten Championships to test their full strength.
Wisconsin took 13th out of 38 teams and collected 347 points. No. 15 Northern Arizona pulled off a shocking upset and took the team title from No. 4 Iona.
Lopez Lomong of Northern Arizona won the Blue Race and initially captured the course record in 23:02.3, only to have it broken 40 minutes later by Liberty's Josh McDougal, who ran 22:56.4.
Redshirt freshman Landon Peacock and sophomore Craig Miller took over the top spots for UW and covered the 8K course in 24:03 and 24:05 for 43rd and 45th, respectively.
Junior Christian Wagner ran 24:16 for the 69th spot. Redshirt freshman Jack Bolas took 84th and ran 24:25. Sophomore Ryan Gasper, UW's final scorer, completed the course in 24:41 for 106th overall.
Also competing for the Badgers were redshirt freshmen David Pede and Ryan Craven who ran 25:14 and 25:29 for 176th and 193rd, respectively.
Sophomore Brandon Bethke won the open race, going quickly enough to be UW's fourth-man in the varsity race with 24:17.
Championship season is around the corner for Wisconsin cross country. Next up are the Big Tens hosted by Ohio State Oct. 28.
- uwbadgers.com
contributed to this report.
