St. Paul, Minn. – The Gustavus Adolphus women’s cross country team turned in a sixth place finish at the 2014 MIAC Championships held on Saturday at the Como Park Golf Course. Gustavus finished with 175 points, 36 points behind fifth place Macalester College.
“Our ladies stepped up to the challenge today,” said head coach Dale Bahr. “Obviously being without Marit is tough, but we had some fantastic individual performances today from our younger runners who really stepped up to contribute today and that was cool to see.”
The Gusties’ top individual performer was again Caitlin Fermoyle (Sr., Mendota Heights, Minn.). After finishing the 6k course in 22:30.8, good for seventh place, Caitlin Fermoyle earned All-Conference honor for the third season in a row.
“Caitlin had an absolutely wonderful race for us today,” said Bahr. “She was very strategically smart…she sat back the first mile and sort of let the leaders do their thing. But eventually she started reeling them in and that’s just part of her race. I think she’s got a great chance in a few weeks at regions to step up and earn a spot into the national meet. She just needs to continue to be smart and run her race and if she does those things, I know she’ll continue to do great things.”
Following Fermoyle was Laura Shurson (Jr., Chanhassen, Minn.) who finished in 31st place with a time of 23:30.4. Next was Emily Sands (So., Rochester, Minn.) who took 43rd in 24:10.9 and Stephanie Welke (So., Tomahawk, Wis.) in 44th with a time of 24:13.7. Rounding out the Gustavus scoring was Courtney Branch (Jr., Minnetonka, Minn.) who crossed the finish line in 24:28.7, good for 50th place.
“The women really ran their hearts out,” said Bahr. “Like I said, we had younger individuals like Emily and Stephanie really step up and that’s what we were looking for today. We’re hoping we can get Marit back into action for regions and save our best race for last.”
Winning the 2014 MIAC Championship was Carleton College who finished with a score of 42. The Knights were able to place three runners in the top 10 and all five of their scorers into the top 15. St. Olaf College came in second with a score of 58 and the University of St. Thomas finished third with score of 64. Carleton’s Ruth Steinke was the meet’s individual champion as she finished the course in 21:28.4 to win a thrilling race against Macalester’s Kimber Meyer. The Scots’ sophomore was second with a time of 21:35.6 and St. Thomas’ Erin Statz (21:12.2) finished third.
The Gustavus women’s cross country team will be back on the course Saturday, Nov. 15 when it travels to Pella, Iowa to compete in the NCAA Central Region Championships at noon.