Cross Country Women surprise Stout, LaMere wins again!

The UW-Platteville Cross Country teams competed at the Blugold Invitational in Colfax, WI on Friday. The Pioneer women began the day by finishing 6th out of 17 teams besting both Luther, ranked third in the Central Region, by 20 points and UW-Stout, ranked 8th in the Midwest Region, by 29 points. The Pioneers were unranked in the latest Midwest regional poll. "This was the first opportunity we had this year to compete against regionally ranked teams. We've known how good our women's team was this year but with four freshmen in our top seven I think we surprised a lot of people. After this performance I expect we will break into the regional rankings" said Assistant Coach Andres Young. The meet was won by UW-La Crosse and host UW-Eau Claire finished 3rd behind St. Olaf.

The Pioneers were led by two top-20 finishers out of the 305 runners. Kiera Depies finished 13th with a time of 22:59 and Chelsey Heiden was 18th with a time of 23:06 for the 6K course. Janelle Ferguson (23:41, 48th), Ashlynne Wampfler (24:07, 65th), Hannah Ihlenfeldt (24:07, 66th), Katie Wardinski (24:10, 69th), and Johanna Meister (25:02, 110th) rounded out the top seven for the Pioneers.

Ian LaMere led the Pioneer men with a win for the second week in a row. LaMere bested the 361 runner field with a time of 24:29 for the 8K course. LaMere led the race from start to finish pulling away to a 15 second lead by the third mile. During the final two miles, a chase pack consisting of multiple National Champions and All-Americans tried to close the gap with LaMere. A few individuals were able to get within five seconds of LaMere in the final half mile. LaMere was able to hold them off in the finishing straight to claim the win. St. Olaf's Jake Campbell finished just over a second behind LaMere and UW-Eau Claire's Josh Thorson, 2015 Outdoor 5K National Champion, finished five seconds behind LaMere to claim third place.

Thorson led the No. 6 nationally ranked Blugolds to an upset over No. 2 ranked St. Olaf. UW-Eau Claire finished with 45 points, St. Olaf with 60 points and No. 8 ranked UW-La Crosse finished third with 86 points. No. 28 nationally ranked UW-Platteville finished fourth in the 19 team field with 134 points.

Jason Winchel was the Pioneer's second runner in the top-20. Winchel finished 20th with a time of 25:33. Rounding out the top seven were Zach Lee (26:04, 37th), Brian Rivers (26:15, 47th), Walker Rynes (26:34, 57th), Chris Czech (26:37, 74th), and Logan Steinhoff (26:41, 78th).

The Pioneers will take the next weekend off from competition and will be back in action in two weeks at the AAE Invitational at UW-Oshkosh.