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Roy Griak Invitational Saturday, Sept. 23 |
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Huge field doesn't intimidate SMU women, as Cardinals place 18th
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — On the surface, the place finish of the Saint Mary's University women's cross country team is a bit misleading.
After all, for the Cardinals to place 18th in a meet seems to be nothing more than an average performance, at best.
But when you consider there were 32 teams competing, it's no wonder coach Ward Berndt is feeling pretty good about his team's effort.
Led by Kate Boisjolie (Austin, Minn.) and Tera Bollig (Cambridge, Minn.), the Cardinals turned in one of their most consistent races of the young season Saturday afternoon at the Roy Griak Invitational on the University of Minnesota campus, as SMU's seven finishers all finished within two minutes of each other.
"The course was pretty slow — it rained all last night and pretty much drenched the entire course," said Berndt. "Our strategy was to go out a little easy for the first kilometer, and then kick it up a notch after that.
"I think the fact that the field sizes were so big had a little bit of an impact on our performance," continued Berndt. "It's kind of a double-edged sword — it's nice to run in a big field, because there's always someone you can pass, but it also means that every time you pass someone, there are 150 more people still in your line of sight.
"I'm pretty happy (with the Cardinals' overall performance).. We've still got some work to do, but I think we're making good progress."
Boisjolie turned in SMU's top time for the second straight week, as the junior toured the six-kilometer course in 24:53, just ahead of Bollig's time of 25:04. Sarah Zweber (Elko, Minn.) chipped in a time of 26:01, while Anne Shutte (Columbia Heights, Minn. / 26:15), Ashley Davis (Hugo, Minn. / 26:22), Kim Koecheler (St. Paul, Minn. / 26:27) and Alicia Hartung (Menomonie, Wis. / 26:40) rounded out the top seven.
John Vallez (Eagan, Minn.) once again led the way for the SMU men, who finished 48th in the 52-team men's field, as the Cardinal freshman posted an 8K time of 28:14. Andy Accola (DeForest, Wis.) was close behind with a time of 29:52, while Jon Sopcak (Steamwood, Ill. / 31:06), Marty Howard (Chicago, Ill. / 32:22), Andrew Rath (Hillsborough, N.J. / 32:38), Jerod Baertsch (Winona, Minn. / 32:41) and Dan Applen (Redwood Falls, Minn. / 33:15) completed the Cardinals' top seven.
"John really ran a great race," said Berndt of his freshman, who posted a lifetime personal best with his 28:14 effort. "We had some people really run solid races, but we had some others who weren't able to kick it into that higher gear. They got into a comfort zone and just stayed there — that's something we are going to have to change before the conference meet."