Mavs cross country races to the finish lane
The men’s and women’s cross country competed this weekend in Minneapolis to face top talent.
Bobbi Patrick
Staff Writer
This past Friday night, the Minnesota State men’s cross country team placed 3rd and the women’s cross country placed 2nd at the Oz Memorial Invitational in Minneapolis at the Les Bolstad Golf Course.
The men ran at 6:30 p.m. against University of Minnesota, Drake University and University of Concordia-St. Paul.
The Mavericks finished with 72 points behind the University of Minnesota (24) and Drake University (44)
Four runners on the men’s team earned top 20 finishes. The top finisher, senior Austin Pasch, placed 5th with a time of 20:20. The next top three included Junior Austin Yardley who placed tenth, Caleb Burke, who placed 16th, and sophomore Jacob Wahlers placing 19th in the meet.
The Maverick Men compete next at the Griak Invitational in Minneapolis, which is the same course as the Oz Memorial Invitational.
“Anyone who has raced Griak knows it’s one of the hardest courses around. It has rolling hills, is almost completely off kilter, and is usually very hot,” said Pasch.
The 33rd annual Roy Griak Invitational will take place Saturday, September 29th at Les Bolstad Golf Course.
The Roy Griak is one of the biggest meets, and also one of the most difficult in the country, hosting a high school competition as well as collegiate division 1,2 and 3 races.
The women ran after the men’s race against three other teams: University of Minnesota, Drake University, and University of Concordia-St. Paul.
The women took 2nd with 60 points behind the University of Minnesota who had 15 points.
The top five on the women’s team finished 8th, 11th, 12th, 14th, and 15th, which added up to the low score of 60 points for the Mavericks 2nd place finish.
The women’s top finisher, Lily Paul, finished with a time of 22:57 for 8th place.
Senior runners Lily Paul and Josie Braaten had a more positive outlook for the team when they get a chance to come back within the next couple of weeks.
“We get to come back to this course in 3 weeks for the Roy Griak Invitational and we can compare our times and progress then,” said Paul.
“The closer our first and fifth runners are, the less chance there is that we will get edged out by the competition. Running as a pack helps us all to get faster because we are able to push each other through the races,” said senior Josie Braatan.
The women’s team will first look forward to running as a pack in Northfield at the St. Olaf invitational on Sept. 22nd for more practice before heading back to Minneapolis.
The Maverick men and women look to run as a pack and crank out competitive times in the next upcoming races.
Feature photo courtesy of msumavericks.com.