Minnetrista, Minn. – The Gustavus women’s cross country team ran away to victory at the Crown College Invitational in Minnetrista on Friday evening. The Gusties took four of the top five spots, and finished just two points shy of perfect scoring. Gustavus was led by sophomore Caitlin Fermoyle (Mendota Heights, Minn.) who recorded her second first place finish of the season. Fermoyle is the first Gustie cross country woman to win multiple events in the same year since Hailey Harren `07 won a total of six races in 2006.
“The women looked fantastic,” mentioned assistant coach Brenden Huber. “We had a really strong showing. They went in with an edge and raced hard.”
For the second time this season, Caitlin Fermoyle stole the show with a first place finish, but it was strong contributions from the team that fueled Gustavus to the run away victory.
Fermoyle crossed the line in a time of 23:05.62 to rank her first. Following Fermoyle in second was Kate Eggers (Sr., Montevideo, Minn.), who cracked the top five for the first time this season, and finished in 23:29.53. Third place belonged to Rebecca Hare (Jr., Albany, Minn.) with a final time of 23:37.82, and fourth place went to Beth Hauer (Sr., Little Falls, Minn.) in 23:45.82.
The Gusties also got a seventh place contribution from Meredith Bache-Wiig (Sr., Plymouth, Minn.), and an eighth place finish from Courtney Branch (Fy., Minnetonka, Minn.). Bache-Wiig finished in 25:09.88, while Branch crossed the line in 25:12.67.
“We got a lot of confidence out of today,” stated Huber. “We had some runners in our mid-pack that stepped up and raced really well.”
The Gustie women will be back in action once again on October 13th when they travel to La Crosse, Wis. to compete in the Tori Neubauer Invitational.