Oct. 14, 2011
MADISON, Wis. - Running in the most competitive meet of the regular season, the Stanford cross-country teams fared well with the men placing third and the women fifth at the Wisconsin adidas Invitational.
The No. 4 men scored 125 points to just miss second place, five points behind No. 6 BYU. No. 2 and host Wisconsin won the meet with just 66 points. Stanford was the top Pac-12 team, well ahead of No. 22 UCLA and No. 10 Oregon who placed 12 and 14th, respectively.
"It wasn't a bad day for us," said associate head coach Jason Dunn. "We certainly don't want to be third, but it was a good experience."
The No. 6 Cardinal women scored 256 points in an extremely close race. Just 74 points separated places 1-7 with No. 24 Washington claiming the meet title with 199 points. The Pac-12 was particularly strong with five of the top eight teams, despite No. 4 Colorado not competing.
"I thought it was solid," said associate head coach PattiSue Plumer. "The upperclassmen ran really well and it is just a hard race for the freshmen with the conditions and the depth of the field. It is a good experience for them and they will be more ready next time."
The Cardinal men were led by its dynamic duo of Chris Derrick and Jacob Riley. Derrick placed sixth with an 8,000-meter time of 23:33, while Riley was not far back, placing eighth in 23:39. The Cardinal front runners could not hang with the blistering pace of Arizona freshman Lawi Lelang who finished with a time of 23:10.8.
Also running well for the Cardinal were Benjamin Johnson and Brendan Gregg. Johnson placed 19th in 24:02, while Gregg was 34th in 24:20. The fourth-year junior and fifth-year senior showed their experience running in big meets with a pair of solid results.
Rounding out the scoring was sophomore Erik Olson. Olson placed 58th with a time of 24:34.
Freshmen twins Joe Rosa and Jim Rosa completed the Stanford team in their first collegiate race wearing a Stanford jersey. Joe was 113th in 24:54, while Jim was 192nd in 25:30. The brothers showed a bit of inexperience, but will have much better results to come.
The women were paced by Kathy Kroeger who finished 10th, covering the 6,000-meter course in 20:17. The junior continues to show she is one of the top runners in the country as she was just 17 seconds off the lead. Defending NCAA champion Sheila Reid of Villanova edged Jordan Hasay Oregon at the line in a repeat of the 2010 NCAA Championships.
Also coming through with strong results were Stephanie Marcy and Jessica Tonn. Marcy is in her final season of cross country for the Cardinal and continues to be steady, particularly in the big meets. She was 21st in 20:37, while the sophomore Tonn was 32nd in 20:46. The top three were the same three and in the same order as the Pac-10 Championships a year ago.
The group of talented freshmen finished behind the top three, led by Aisling Cuffe who placed 55th in 20:58. The Stanford Invitational runner-up was facing the top competition of her young career and hung in nicely. Alli Billmeyer completed the Stanford scoring, placing 138th in 21:32.
The rest of the Cardinal were freshmen Molly McNamara who was 197th in 21:52 and senior Georgia Griffin who placed 239th in 22:16.
The meet in Wisconsin is just the beginning for the Cardinal teams this weekend and both the men and the women will also send teams to the Bronco Invitational on Saturday. The annual meet hosted by Santa Clara will begin at 9:00 am with Stanford running at 9:45am and 10:30am.