The Lawrence University men’s and women’s cross country teams traveled to the University of Minnesota this past weekend to compete at the Roy Griak Invitational. The women took eighth place out of 20 teams while the men’s team took tenth out of 17 teams.
The women’s team was paced by a young group and none of their seven runners were seniors. The team was led in the 6000-meter race by sophomore Cora Williams, who placed 37th overall with a time of 24:59.0. She was followed by freshman Erin Schrobilgen and junior Clare Bruning who finished back-to-back in 41st and 42nd. Other notable finishes included freshman Hannah Kinzer finishing in 55th place and sophomore Amy Hutchings finishing in 64th place.
The men also sported a young team that did not include any seniors. The top performer for the men’s team was junior Jonah Laursen who finished 42nd overall by finishing the 8000-meter course in 28:56.0. Next for the men was sophomore Max Edwards as he finished in 50th place.
Other noteworthy finishes were by senior Kyle Dockery who took 63rd, junior Cam Davies as he took 69th and junior Chris Fuelling as he rounded out the scoring and finished 71st. The men’s and women’s team from UW-La Crosse both finished in first and claimed the titles at the Invitational.
“At Griak we confronted unusually warm weather which added more difficulty to the already hilly course,” said Cora Williams, “I believe our team learned a lot from the race and we are all very excited to race at the very flat and quick course we will race on at the Gene Davis Invitational this weekend.”
The Vikings compete at home for the first time this weekend for the first of two home meets. The Gene Davis Invitational will be held at the Reid Municipal Golf Course here in Appleton. The second meet at home is the highly anticipated Midwest Conference (MWC) Championship and that will be on the same course.
The Vikings look to take advantage of racing at their home course. “We will enjoy having more spectators than at our road meets,” added sophomore Max Edwards. “We will also be running several workouts on the course to get a feel for the terrain and the nuances of it.”
As the Vikings head into the second half of the season, it is clear that they have their sights set on performing well at the MWC Championships on November 1. “We have a lot of firepower, so staying healthy will be very important as the Conference Championships near,” commented Edwards.
The Gene Davis Invitational will take place this Saturday, October 4, and will begin at 10am.