NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The Gustavus women’s cross country team took 11th place out of 23 teams at the St. Olaf Invitational on Saturday, scoring 371 points. Minnesota-Duluth took first, Carleton placed second, and host St. Olaf came in third.
Sadie Novak-Klug (Jr., Waseca, Minn.) paced the Gusties with a 39th place finish, crossing the line in 24:12.
“She’s in very good shape and she’s starting to figure it out,” Head Coach Dale Bahr said of Novak-Klug. “She had a very strong race today. She let go of the pack a little bit during the middle of the race, but ended up finishing strong.”
Olivia Rosenow (Jr., Maple Grove, Minn.) and Kitty O’Connell (Fy., Edina, Minn.) came in next for the Gusties, taking 103rd and 104th place, respectively, with times of 25:12 and 25:14. Gabriela Passmore (Fy., Mapleton, Minn.) was close behind in 106th place with a time of 25:16. Lydia Hayes (Jr., Decorah, Iowa) was the fifth Gustie runner to cross the line, taking 114th place in 25:25.
“We had a couple first-years sneak into the top five and it’s great to see those guys perform well,” Bahr said. “Any time you get first-years cracking into your top five, that’s good stuff. This week the women looked stronger than the first two weeks. We are missing a few key components; our number two runner wasn’t there today, and one of our senior captains was held out today. But it’s really exciting to see the women’s team start to gel as a team.”
Gustavus has next weekend off and then returns to the course Oct. 1 at Carleton.