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Jim Drews / Tori Neubauer Invite Saturday, Oct. 14 |
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Cardinals make most of final MIAC tune-up with season-best effort
WEST SALEM, Wis. — With one meet before the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, Saint Mary's University cross country coach Ward Berndt was a little apprehensive about what to expect form his Cardinals at Saturday's UW-La Crosse Jim Drews/Tori Neubauer Invitational.
His SMU women's team was coming off its best performance of the season at the Martin Luther Invitational a week ago, but what concerned Berndt was, could they put together a repeat performance a week later?
Did they ever.
Getting season- or career-best times from virtually his entire lineup — both on the men's and women's sides — the Cardinals made their final MIAC tune-up one to remember as the women placed 20th, while the men finished 30th.
"This was a great way for us to go into the conference meet," said Berndt. "This is such a tough field — there are so many top-ranked Division III schools, as well as a number of the top Division II teams — so our final team results don't look all that impressive.
"But when you look at the times — just about every runner ran a personal best — that's unbelievable."
Tera Bolig (Cambridge, Minn.) led the Cardinal women's charge, posting a six-kilometer time of 23:29 – just on second off the school's 6K record. Alicia Hartung (Menomonie, Wis.) chipped in a time of 23:51, while Kate Boisjolie (Austin, Minn. / 24:06), Anne Shutte (Columbia Heights, Minn. / 24:34) and Ashley Davis (Hugo, Minn. / 24:42) rounded out the Cardinals top five.
"Tera had a great race, and everyone else just seemed to feed off that" praised Berndt of his senior. "For us to have two runners under 24 minutes is outstanding. It was just one of those days when everything seemed to click for everyone."
And it was more of the same on the men's side, as John Vallez (Eagan, Minn.) led the way with an 8K time of 26:56 — a time that was not only the eighth-best time in SMU history, but also more than a minute and a half faster than his previous best time. Andy Accola (DeForest, Wis.) chipped in a time of 28:41, with Andrew Rath (Hillsborough, N.J. / 29:50), Jon Sopcak (Steamwood, Ill. / 30:09) and Jerod Baertsch (Winona, Minn. / 30:24) completing the SMU top five.
"Everyone's feeling pretty good, this is exactly the type of meet we were hoping for heading in conference," said Berndt. "They're walking on Cloud 9."