Pella, Iowa – The Gustavus Adolphus women’s cross country team posted a team score of 85 to finish in third place out of nine teams at the Central Dutch Invitational held Saturday morning at the A.N. Kyper Athletics Complex. The Gusties finished only eight points behind second place Loras College (77 pts.), while MIAC-rival Carleton College won the meet with a team score of 29.
Marit Sonnesyn (Jr., Plymouth, Minn.), Caitlin Fermoyle (Sr. Mendota Heights, Minn.) and Lauren Shurson (Jr., Chanhassen, Minn.) came within six seconds of one another and finished in fourth, fifth and sixth place overall, respectively, to give Gustavus three of the top six runners in the meet. Sonnesyn ran the 6k race in 23:40, Fermoyle in 23:45 and Shurson in 23:46. Junior Ruth Steinke of Carleton was the meet’s individual champion by crossing the finish line in 22:44.
First-years Mata Agre (Medina, Minn.) and Sadie Novak-Klug (Waseca, Minn.) rounded out the scoring for Gustavus by placing 40th and 43rd, respectively, with times of 25:29 and 25:48.
Gustavus posted a total time of 2:02:30 for an average of 24:30 in the squad’s first 6k length race of the season.
The Gusties will now have two full weeks of training before their next outing, which is set to take place on Saturday, Sept. 20 when the men’s and women’s cross country teams will travel to Northfield, Minnesota. to compete in the St. Olaf Invitational. The men’s race will begin at 10:00 a.m. with the women’s race following at 11:00 a.m.