Pioneers host Gender Equity Invitational at Cole Acres

Cuba City, Wis. - The Pioneers hosted UW-Stevens Point and a spattering of alumni at the Gender Equity Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 28 at Cole Acres Golf Course. The men's 8,000m race began at 10:30 a.m., and two minutes and forty seconds later the women's 6,000m race began. By the end, men and women battled their way across the finish line. 

Senior Caitlyn Ifft and junior Brenna Kautz led the way for the UW-Platteville women's cross country team. Ifft finished in third place in the women's race, with a time of 25:38.6. Kautz crossed in sixth place with a time of 26:02.1. Kirstie Ramsey ran in the top ten, crossing in ninth place with a time of 27:47.4. Finishing in first place among the field of women, alumni Johanna Meister crossed in 24:43.1. Alumni Kiera Depies followed in second place in 25:20.9. 

Zach Klokow, a senior on the Pioneers' men's cross country team, took first place in the men's race with a time of 26:21.7. Sophomore Jacob Harland came in sixth place crossing the finish line in 28:03.0. Harland was followed shortly after by junior Nick Hein and senior Evan Krug. Hein ran 28:19.4 for eighth place, and Krug took tenth place with a time of 28:36.4. 

Over the both genders, it was Klokow who won the Pioneer Gender Equity Invitational. Although, three Pioneer women student-athletes and alumni made it into the top ten finishers of the day. Meister finished in third among the runners, fending off her opponenet Kyle Hermand into the finishe line shoot. Depies was sixth and Ifft was ninth among the both genders. 

Coming up next for the Pioneers, the men's and women's cross country teams will travel to Colfax, Wis. for the Blugold Invitational on Friday, Oct. 4.