Pioneers drop personal bests at Olde English Classic
Beloit, Wis. – The Pioneer men's and women's cross country teams competed at Beloit College's Olde English Classic on Saturday, September 22, 2018. The UW-Platteville men took first place among the five teams in attendance. Men's teams competing included Loras, Beloit, Knox, and St. Ambrose. The UW-Platteville women took fifth place among six teams. The teams competing in the women's race were St. Ambrose, Beloit, Sauk Valley Community College, Loras, and Knox.
The Pioneers used this race as a lesson in training, using teammates to push them to faster times. The Pioneer men were led by sophomore Grant Munson, who finished second individually with a time of 28:26.9. Freshman Jacob Harland, partnered with Zach Lee, ran a college best time of 28:32.0 for third place individually. Lee came through in fourth place at 28:32.6. Lars Hay finished in sixth place individually, crossing with a time of 28:37.1. Nolan Wallenkamp, who was paired with Hay, ran 28:39.0 to take eighth place. Freshman Xander Furmanek ran a college best time, 28:48.1, running alongside upperclassmen Zach Klokow. Furmanek finished in 11th place; Klokow placed 12th.
Nathan Taylor ran 29:11.0 for a personal best time, as did freshmen Paul King running 29:39.7. More personal bests came from freshmen Jacob Woloszyn (29:43.3), Chris East (30:12.3), Erik Peterson (30:18.6), Troy Humpal (30:46.7), Tyler Doering (30:50.4), and Tony Rozewski (32:27.3).
For the Pioneer women, sophomore Lexi Richardson paved the way coming in 18th place with a time of 27:09.1. Senior Katie Wardinski helped Richardson succeed in her quest for a college best time, finishing just behind her at 27:09.4 in 20th place. Senior Johanna Meister worked beside Anna Drazkowski, coming in at 22nd place (27:16.4) and 23rd place (27:16.5) respectively.
Junior Haley Daniels and senior Janelle Ferguson worked together to run in at 26th place (27:24.4) and 27th place (27:25.0). Daniels had a personal record today, besting her previous best 6,000m time by just over one minute. Claudia De Valk also ran a personal record today, coming in at 35th place with 28:39.7. Freshmen Katie Ganzer and Mackenzie Parrell ran personal records, shaving minutes off their time, running 30:13.1 and 31:05.7 respectively.
The Pioneers travel to Eau Claire, Wisconsin next Friday, September 28 to compete at the Blugold Invitational. The women's race will begin at 4:15 p.m. and the men's race at 5:15 p.m.
