Pioneer cross country races against regional competition at Blugold Invitational

Pioneer cross country races against regional competition at Blugold Invitational
September 29, 2018

Colfax, Wis. – The UW-Platteville men's and women's cross country teams traveled to the Blugold Invitational on Friday, September 28th, 2018. The invitational, hosted by UW-Eau Claire, included 25 women's teams and 29 men's teams. The Pioneer women took 11th place among the 25 teams, and the Pioneer men took 6th among the 29 teams.

Teams in attendance for the women included UW-Eau Claire, Carleton, Wheaton, St. Olaf, North Central, Minnesota-Duluth, Winona State, St. Benedict, UW-Stevens Point, UW-Oshkosh, UW-Stout, Luther, St. Norbert, Hamline, Aurora, Michigan Tech, UW-Whitewater, Minnesota-Morris, Edgewood, Concordia (Wis.), St. Mary's, Indian Hills Community College, Viterbo, and Northwestern of Minnesota.

Of 327 women, senior Johanna Meister led Pioneer women and came through the finish line in 17th place with a time of 22:44.3. Finishing at 43rd place, senior Katie Wardinski came in at 23:28.6. Close on her heels was another senior, Janelle Ferguson, who finished 45th place in 23:32.2. The fourth runner for the Pioneers was sophomore Brenna Kautz. Kautz finished in 167th place with a personal best time of 25.23.3. Also running a personal record for a 6,000m race was senior Danielle Nelson. Nelson came in as the fifth Pioneer and ran for 184th place with a time of 25:38.9.

Notable finishes came from Anna Drazkowski who finished as the sixth Pioneer, 188th place overall, running 25:41.0 just shy of a personal best time. Making her college debut race, freshman Savannah Palmer ran in as the seventh Pioneer, finishing 194th place overall. Palmer ran 25.47.1. Personal best times came from junior Haley Daniels, Claudia De Valk, Mackenzie Parrell, and Kat Salis.

Teams in attendance for the men's race included UW-Stout, St. Olaf, UW-Eau Claire, Carleton, UW-Stevens Point, Minnesota-Duluth, UW-Whitewater, Wheaton, Michigan Tech, St. John's, Luther, Dubuque, MSOE, Aurora, Concordia (Wis.), UW-Oshkosh, Indian Hills Community College, Carthage, Winona State, Hamline, Minnesota-Morris, St. Norbert, St. Mary's, Viterbo, Northwestern (Minn.), Edgewood, North Central (Minn.), and Crown.

Leading the Pioneers at the finish was senior Zach Lee, who finished with a time of 24:55.9 in sixth place of 430 men. Nolan Wallenkamp finished next for the Pioneers in 25:44.4 in 25th place. Finishing as UW-Platteville's third runner, Zach Klokow ran a new personal best time of 25:45.0 for 28th place. Senior Alex Clark made his way into the fourth position for the Pioneers, placing 54th and running a personal best time of 26:18.9. Mitchell Muffler finished with a personal best time as well, running 26:28.7 for 61st place.

Other notable finishes from the Pioneer men came from Isaac Schuetz who finished 100th with 26:53.7. Freshman Ben Trihey ran a personal best of 27:17.1 to claim 125th place in the 8,000m race. Many personal records continued to fall at the Whitetail Golf Course. Nick Hein ran a personal best 27:21.6 for 140th place, as did Jarod Baker who ran 27:27.2 for 155th place and Grant Munson, running 27:37.8 for 175th place. Veterans to the team, Lars Hay and Nathan Taylor finished with a personal best of 27:47.2 and 28:49.5 respectively.

Four freshmen finished with personal bests on the day. Freshman Xander Furmanek and Jacob Harland finished with 27:48.5 and 27:54.4 respectively. Jason Voelker also finished in 28:14.0. Paul King brought his time down by nearly a minute, running 28:23.7. Jacob Woloszyn ran 29:00.9, improving on his personal best, as did Erik Peterson, Troy Humpal, Tyler Doering, Chris East, Tony Rozewski, and Zach Flitsch.

The Pioneers will have an off weekend during the upcoming weekend to prepare for their next race which will be at Lake Breeze Golf Course in Winneconne, Wisconsin. The Kollege Town Sports Invitation is hosted by UW-Oshkosh and will take place Saturday, October 13.