[img id=”76878″ align=”alignleft”] The men’s and women’s cross country team were back in Wisconsin this weekend—this time in Oshkosh, not Kenosha–and once again the teams came back from Badger State with top-ten finishes at a big meet.
Running at the UW-Oshkosh invite Saturday, the men’s squad came in eighth overall, while the women placed seventh among the teams competing. The results were disappointing, however, for a squad that had hoped to finish near the top of their first recent meet against solely D-III competition.
For the women, fourth-year Rachel Venezia had the top time for the second week in a row, turning in a 22:37 time in the 6K race, good for 27th overall. The Maroons’ next two runners, first-year Rachel Ohman and second-year Liz Lawton, were less than ten seconds behind Venezia, finishing in 22:43 and 22:45.
Among the Maroons competing, first-year Jane Simpson and second-year Molly Peverada came in fourth and fifth to round out the team’s scoring. Altogether the Maroons totaled 215 points, putting them seventh out of 30 teams, 21 behind sixth-place UW-Stevens Point. Calvin College, the top ranked team in DIII, won the women’s half of the competition, collecting just 59 points.
Chicago’s performance at Oshkosh was aided by the return of Lawton and Ohman, who have been among the Maroons’ top finishers all year, but were unable to compete in last weekend’s meet at UW-Parkside. First-year Ali Klooster, who has finished in the top five for the Maroons several times this season, was also back after sitting out last week. Klooster finished 15th among the Maroon’s contingent at Oshkosh.
In the men’s race, fourth-year Chris Peverada once again paced the Maroons, placing 23rd overall with a time of 24:58 on the 8K course. Peverada has had the fastest time for the Maroons in all but one of his races this season.
Following up Peverada were three second-years: Arthur Baptist, who ran a 25:20, Jim Mumford (25:38), and Nick Nunez (25:43). First-year Moe Bahrani ran a 25:53 and was the last Maroon to score.
Between them, the men put up a 280-point performance, good for 8th among the 32nd teams at the meet. Right in front of them was Wheaton College, which scored 248 points. North Central, which is ranked second nationally, won the meet with 68 points.
The UAA Championships, which will be on November 1 at Emory this year, are up next for the men’s and women’s squads. In 2007, the women finished fourth and the men were eighth at the conference meet.
