ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Gustavus men’s and women’s cross country teams competed at the Hamline Invitation Friday, with the men’s team placing third of six and the women’s team posting a third place finish of 10. Carleton won both the men’s and women’s competition.
Tucker Wallin (Sr., Red Wing) led the way for the men, taking seventh place out of 74 runners with a time of 25:43.71. Henry Hinchcliffe (Sr., Austin) finished next for the Gusties in 11th with a time of 26:10.36, followed closely by Tyler Smith (So., Norwood Young America) in 12th at 26:16.22. Jake Wieglos (Sr., Elburn, Ill.) finished 15th (26:21.84), and Logan McCullough (Jr., Waverly, Iowa) rounded out the Gustie top-five in 18th with a time of 26:30.54.
“The points were close for our men. Today was a good reminder that every jersey counts. To know that we were close to those teams ahead of us, while not yet running our best leaves me very optimistic for our guys,” said Coach Brenden Huber. “Watching the pack move up today proved to be a good start for our first full distance of the year.”
Once again, Evelyn Villalobos (Jr., Crystal) led the way for the Gustie women, with a fifth-place finish and a time of 22:30.88. Molly Liston (Fy., Richfield) finished next for the Gustie women at 14th with a time of 23:13.07. The next three Gustie women finished in a pack with Sydney Hagen (So., Starbuck) at 26th (24:00.70), Kailyn Walukas (So., Eau Claire, Wis.) at 30th (24:15.81), and Molly Weberg (Sr., Duluth, Minn.) rounding out the team scoring at 31st (24:19.00).
“We knew those two teams ahead of us were very good. Carleton is ranked 16th in the nation, and we expected Saint Benedict to be very good this year as well. Our women didn’t get the exact start we were hoping for, but they made adjustments on the fly and really competed hard.”
Today went really well. We executed the same race plan as last week and had a great performance all around.”
Gustavus competes next weekend at the St. Olaf Invite on Sept. 17.