ST. BONIFACIUS, Minn. – The Gustavus men’s and women’s cross country teams posted great showings in their first races of the season Friday at the Crown College Invite. The women took first place out of nine teams, including four runners in the top-10, while the men took third out of eight teams. The Gustie women finished one point ahead of Wartburg, while the men finished one point behind second place Concordia-St. Paul.
“Solid start to the season. Its always tough to know what to expect at the first meet, but it was fun to see the hard work pay off. We competed well all around,” Head Coach Brenden Huber said.
Sadie Klug (Sr., Waseca, Minn.) paced the women’s team by taking fourth place out of 110 runners with a time of 20:00.42. Kourtney Kulseth (Fy., New Richland, Minn.) was right behind in fifth at 20:10.69, while Olivia Rosenow (Sr., Maple Grove, Minn.) took seventh in 20:28.30, Sarah Anderson (So., Roseville, Minn.) placed ninth at 20:30.95, and Lotus Schifsky (Jr., Prescott, Wis.) finished 12th at 20:44.90.
“We knew there was potential that we’d be much improved this year and it was awesome to see the ladies accept the challenge and compete as well as they did today,” Huber said.
Andrew Stumbo (Fy. Boone, Iowa), led the men’s squad in his first collegiate cross country race, taking ninth place out of 91 runners with a time of 16:57.67. Ryley Sandberg (Sr., Alleman, Iowa) was close behind at 16:58.19, placing 12th, while Ben Madigan (Jr., Kohler, Wis.) took 15th place at 17:10.40. Bridger Pavelka (So., Minnetonka, Minn.) placed 21st in 17:23.23 and Andrew Wischnack (Jr., Norwood, Minn.) took 24th in 17:26.94.
“It was great to see how well our front pack ran today, especially knowing we rested a few that would be in that mix of runners,” Huber said. “Both the men and women had plans going into their races and executed them well.”
Gustavus returns home next Saturday as it hosts alumni meet, beginning at 10 a.m. at the Linneaus Arboretum.