MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Saint Mary's University cross country coach
Ward Berndt knew what his teams were getting into Saturday afternoon when they toed the line for the Roy Griak Invitational.
He wasn't sure some of his younger runners did, however.
After two rather low-key, four-team “tune-ups,” the Cardinals competed in their first big meet of the season.
Make that huge meet.
With more than 70 teams and 1,000 runners in the two Roy Griak Invitational races combined, the Cardinals must have felt like the little fish in the big pond.
And Berndt knew they would.
“It's a big, big meet and it was a good experience for a lot of our younger runners,” said Berndt, whose women placed 26th in the 37-team field, while the SMU men were 28th among 35 teams. “For us, the best part of competing in a meet like this is you get your first opportunity to see all the other teams in the conference — to see where you stack up.
“And I was pretty pleased with what I saw.”
UW-La Crosse brought home the women's team title, holding off UW-Oshkosh by 14 points, while Bethel's Marie Borner won the individual crown, touring the six-kilometer Les Bolstad Course in 21:37. On the men's side, UW-La Crosse swept both team and individual honors, blowing away the rest of the field to win by 33 points, with Zack Wilhelmy leading the charge with a winning 8K time of 25:27.
Rachel Folan (Glen Ellyn, Ill.) led the way for the Cardinals for the second week in a row, clocking of time of 25:03. Ashley Acosta (Winebago, Minn.) added a time of 26:06, followed by Joanna Pace (Minocqua, Wis. / 26:37), Regina Quandt (Minneapolis, Minn. / 27:05), Jill Spitzmueller (New Brighton, Minn. / 27:14), Brittany Kuehn (Sauk Rapids, Minn. / 27:25) and Mackenzie Ferguson (Arcadia, Wis. / 27:52).
On the men's side, David Feather (Oak Creek, Wis.) was again the Cardinals' top finisher, stopping the clock in 27:56. Peter Borash (Bowlus, Minn.) chipped in a time of 28:40, followed by Ben Carlson (Rosemount, Minn. / 29:28), Jake Traxler (LeSueur, Minn. / 29:43), Robby McGuire (Rochester, Minn. / 29:54), Quentin Moore (Minneapolis, Minn. / 30:38) and Benton Kodet (Northfield, Min. / 30:56).
“It was a good meet for us,” said Berndt. “It was a great experience for all of our younger runners, and it was good for us to run a race at the 6K and 8K distances. Overall, I was pretty pleased with the way we ran — it's such a big field, it's hard to really get a good feel for just how good the times were.”
