Michigan State University
Wisconsin Adidas Invitational
No. 2 Women's Cross Country Dominates In Wisconsin
10/17/2014 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
MADISON, Wis. - The Michigan State men's and women's cross country teams returned to action on Friday afternoon at the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational, which was held at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course in Madison. Competing against a stacked field that included 22 ranked teams, the No. 2-ranked Spartan women's squad earned their third team win of the 2014 campaign with a total of 89 points, finishing more than 100 points ahead of second-place & No. 5-ranked Arkansas in the women's 6K race. The Michigan State men recorded 399 points and placed 15th among 36 teams, 19 of them ranked in the top-30, in the men's 8K event.
"I loved our team energy and focus from both groups on the course today," said MSU Director of Cross Country and Track & Field Walt Drenth. "They went into the race with the type of mentality that we talk about in practice every day and that's really good to see moving forward. I thought we showed a great deal of improvement from when we last raced in Minnesota. If we continue to build on that heading into the conference and national meets, we are very excited about what we can accomplish."
Running for the first time in almost three weeks, Rachele Schulist and Leah O'Connor once again paced the Spartans in the top-10 in the field of 38 teams and 265 runners. Schulist clocked in at 19:39 to finish second overall, followed closely by O'Connor in ninth place with a time of 19:56. Lindsay Clark finished 14th with a time of 20:12, followed by Julia Otwell (20:29) in 30th and Sara Kroll (20:33) in 32nd to round out the scoring for Michigan State. Katie Landwehr (20:40) and Alexis Wiersma (21:09) finished 41st and 93rd, respectively.
"The women really validated the improvements that we believed we'd seen in practice over the last three weeks," stated Drenth. "Rachele (Schulist) and Leah (O'Connor) were very good at the top once again and I thought Lindsay Clark had a breakout day at the front of the race as well. I thought today really showed our depth from one to seven, but we want to continue improving over the next few weeks as we prepare for the NCAA regional and championship meets."
Caleb Rhynard turned in a season-best 8K time of 24:06 and finished 18th overall to lead the MSU men's team. Alex Wilson clocked in with a PR of 24:23 to finish 56th, followed by Sherod Hardt (24:37), Ben Miller (24:41), and Ben Carruthers (24:48) making up the Spartan's top five. Nick Soter (24:55) and Max Benoit (25:19) rounded out the rotation for MSU.
"We went into the race today wanting to finish in the top half and accumulate points to qualify for nationals," said Drenth. "We competed against an exceptional field, but I thought we followed our race plans very well and showed the progress that we've made in practice. We still have some room to grow and get better as a whole, but we were very pleased with how we performed in really tough race."
Next up on the schedule for Michigan State will be the Eastern Michigan University Fall Classic on Friday, Oct. 24. The event will take place in Dexter, Michigan, and will get underway at 4 p.m. ET.
Players Mentioned
