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| Recent Results: Martin Luther Invitational SMU women 1st, men 4th / Details |
| Upcoming Events: Sat., Oct. 14: SMU at Jim Drews Invitational, La Crosse, Wis. |
cruise to a first-place finish at Martin Luther Invite
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Tera Bollig
2nd overall at Martin Luther |
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John
Vallez 2nd overall at Martin Luther |
And the way the Cardinals performed, it may be their last — Martin Luther may not invite them back.
Led by Tera Bollig (Cambridge, Minn.) and Kate Boisjolie (Austin, Minn.), the SMU women blew away the rest of the field, as the Cardinals picked up their first invitational win of the season.
"We came into this meet with a little different mind-set," said SMU coach Ward Berndt, who watched as his women's team put seven runners in the top 10. "This was kind of like their 'free pass' of the season — it was a chance for them to go and let it all out and see what happens.
"Obviously, it worked out pretty well."
For the women.
That strategy didn't quite work as well for the Cardinal men, as SMU settled for a fourth-place effort in the six-team field.
"I think the guys focused on the wrong things coming into the meet," said Berndt. "They were too caught up in the end result, rather than the process that would get them there. We got three guys that ran pretty well, but the rest … it wasn't quite what we were hoping for."
Bollig posted a season-best six-kilometer time of 24:05 to place second overall, while Boisjolie led a 4-5-6-7 SMU finish with a time of 24:39. Alicia Hartung (Menomonie, Wis.) placed fifth (25:10), followed by Kim Koecheler (St. Paul, Minn. / 6th, 25:28) and Anne Shutte (Columbia Heights, Minn. / 7th, 25:36). Ashley Davis (Hugo, Minn. / 9th, 25:58) and Sarah Zweber (Elko, Minn. / 10th, 26:03) rounded out SMU's top seven.
On the men's side, John Vallez (Eagan, Minn.) led the SMU charge, posting an 8K time of 28:31 to place second overall. Andy Accola (DeForest, Wis. / 15th) and Jon Sopcak (Steamwood, Ill. / 17th) chipped in times of 31:07 and 31:18, respectively, to crack the top 20, while Marty Howard (Chicago, Ill. / 32:42), Jerod Baertsch (Winona, Minn. / 26th, 33:36), Dan Applen (Redwood Falls, Minn. / 29th, 34:10) and Andrew Rath (Hillsborough, N.J. / 30th, 34:51) rounded out the Cardinal lineup.
"The meet was a good confidence-builder — it was a chance for everyone to let loose and experiment a bit before we get down to our serious training for the conference meet," said Berndt. "We got a lot of nice performances, especially on the women's side. Now we've got to keep it going."