Cross Country teams run wild from Boulder to Palo Alto

Last weekend, the Colorado School of Mines cross country teams used their three weeks of training since their last meet to run past the competition. With races in both Boulder, Colorado and Palo Alto, California, the weekend proved successful for both the men’s and women’s teams. The women’s team finished sixth out of eleven teams at the Stanford Invitational. The No. 6 ranked men’s team finished first out of sixteen non-Division I one teams at the Stanford invitational and second out of seven non-DI teams at the Rocky Mountain Shootout in Boulder, Colorado.

The top five finishers for the lady Orediggers were junior Chloe Gustafson, sophomores Nicole deMontigny and Ann Miller, and freshmen Hanna Barringer and Whitney Schultz. On the way to their sixth place finish (score of 153), the women’s team beat the No. 24 ranked California State Stanislaus team as well as conference foe Fort Lewis (185). Gustafson led the way for Mines with her fifth place finish amongst the non Division I teams, completing the 6k distance in a time of 22:38. DeMontigny and Miller finished 13 (60) and 38 (123) respectively in times of 23:10 and 24:06; while Barringer and Schultz finished in 47 (153) and 50 (162) in times of 24:33 and 24:47 respectively to round out the team score for Mines.

Of the 28 Division I and non-Division I teams at the Stanford Invitational, the Oredigger men beat all but Stanford, while claiming the non-Division I title with 38 points and, finishing first out of the 16 teams beating the No. 4 ranked, in Division II, Chico State team (42 team points). Derek Alcorn (junior) and Andrew Epperson (senior) set the pace by completing 8k course in times of 25:04 and 25:10 to place thirteenth and fourteenth overall. To round out the team scoring, Marty Andrie (sophomore), Phil Schneider (junior), and Drew Kerschieter (sophomore) finished 24, 26, and 29 with times of 25:31, 25:38, and 25:40. Also racing for the men were Frank Socha, Paul Geimer, Joe Bourgeois, and Andrew Chumich who finished 34, 80, 84, and 119 out of the 243 runners, with times of 25:51, 26:29, 26:32, and 27:02 respectively.

At CU, the Orediggers had eight runners in the top 20, finishing 8, 9, 11, 12, 16, 17, and 19, and losing only to conference foe Western State. Finishing in eighth, Nathaniel Williams (red-shirt freshman) paced the team on the muddy 8k course in a time of 27:18. Ryan Bull (junior), red-shirt freshmen, Seth Topper, Dan Mahoney, and Kit Mayer rounded out the top five for Mines. Their times for the race were 27:34 (9), 27:44 (11), 27:47 (12), and 28:18 (16) respectively.

The next race for both teams is this weekend at the Roadrunner Invitational hosted by fellow RMAC team, Metro State.