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Home away from home just as sweet as Cardinal women place third
ARCADIA, Wis. For the Saint Mary's University cross country teams, Arcadia, Wis., was home away from home Saturday.
The Cardinals competed in their second home invitational, but this was no ordinary home meet for SMU.
The meet was held in Arcadia, Wis., and coach John Skemp couldn't be happier about the results.
"It was a great course and a beautiful day," Skemp said. "It was a big day for the women it was nice to have Ellen Koranda (Blue Earth, Minn.) back in the line-up our two, three, four and five runners did an excellent job of working together."
Koranda, who sat on the sideline for the first SMU Invitational due to an injury, led the Cardinals in third place overall, finishing the 6-kilometer course in 24 minutes, 33 seconds.
Tera Bollig (Cambridge, Minn.) was right behind Koranda in seventh place (24:52), and rounding out the top five were Alicia Hartung (Menomonie, Wis. / 17th, 26:00), Keri Drake (Sturgeon Bay, Wis. / 20th, 26:44) and Ashley Davis (Hugo, Minn. / 24th, 27:05).
As a team, the SMU women finished third in the six-team field with 72 points, defeating cross-town rival Winona State which posted 94 points. UW-Eau Claire won the meet with 39 points.
On the men's side, Andy Boisjolie (Austin, Minn.) led the Cardinal field in 12th place, finishing the 8-kilometer course in 29:20.
Karl Hatteberg (Waltham, Minn.) crossed the finish line next (18th/30:26), while Pat Polasek (Glendale Heights, Ill. / 23rd, 30:53), Mike Marek (Winona, Minn. / 32nd, 33:01) and Pat Bansley (Chicago, Ill. / 33rd, 33:33) rounded out the top five.
"The guys faced some injuries, so that held them back a little," said Skemp, whose men finished in fifth place, just nine points behind Winona State. "But the top three guys really ran well."
Overall, the men finished only nine points behind WSU, leaving with 118 points in sixth place.
The Cardinals are back in action again Friday when they travel to Colfax, Wis., for the Pre-National Invitational hosted by UW-Eau Claire.
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