Lawrence women overwhelm the opposition in efforts to strike fear into the hearts of their competitors.
Both cross country teams had their annual home meets last weekend, held at Plamann Park. Running on their home course for the first time this year, the women made excellent use of the home field advantage and stormed to first place with a mere 25 points, with St. Norbert finishing a distant second with 57 points.
Courtney Miller led the team once again, finishing the hilly course in 20:15.78.
With the Vikings grabbing four of the top five spots, the win was never in doubt. Jess Moser ran to third, Colleen Detjens fourth, and Rachel Lucas fifth, and Jamie Marincic rounded out the scorers with a 12th place finish in the absence of Kelly Scheer.
None of the teams wanted to risk injury to their main runners with the conference meet this weekend at Lake Forest, but the win nonetheless places the lady Vikings as serious contenders for the conference title. The win gave the women a strong shot of confidence going into the conference meet.
With Kelly Scheer set to return from a leg injury that kept her out of the home meet, all the runners should be in prime condition to challenge for the top spots.
Much is expected from the team. Sophomore Rachel Lucas said, “The main goal is to finish first, with our top five runners finishing in the top 15 and claiming all-conference.” She emphasized that they just want to run their best, though most likely good results would follow.
The men’s team, though sometimes overshadowed by the women, also produced good results this weekend. They grabbed the third place spot while UW-Platteville claimed the title with an outstanding 17 points.
Top runners Phil Keith and Paul Schonfeld finished seventh and eighth respectively, leading the men to third with 73 points. David Quinlan, Mitch Goodman, and Will Daniels followed.
At the Conference meet this weekend in Lake Forest, they intend to give the other schools a taste of what to expect in the coming years.