On Saturday, the men’s and women’s cross country teams headed to Oshkosh, WI for the NCAA DIII Midwest Regional. Both squads had a successful showing, as the women finished third out of 38 teams, while the men were ninth out of 33 teams. The women collected 124 points on the 6K route, while Wash U finished first with 66 points. On the men’s side, the South Siders earned 278 points on the 8K course, while North Central finished first with 37 points.
The runners had a good showing individually, as well. On the women’s side, the highlight was definitely third-year Khia Kurtenbach, who finished in first place with a time of 21:41.22, an average time of 5:49 per mile. Two weeks ago at the UAA championships, Wash U second-year Aly Wayne beat Kurtenbach by 22 seconds for the first place title. This time around, Kurtenbach turned things around to win by nearly two seconds over Wayne. In addition, third-years Cassidy McPherson and Kelsey Dunn as well as fourth-year Madeleine Horvath all finished within the top 40, thereby earning All-Region accolades. This was very impressive considering a total of 265 women took part in the meet.
On the men’s side, Nick Nielsen received All-Region status by finishing 34th with a time of 25:36.1. Fourth-years Timofey Karginov and Eyal Hanfling both placed in the top 60. Karginov had a time of 25:57.5 and finished 51st while Hanfling finished at 56th place with a time of 26:06.0. Considering 247 men took part at Lake Breeze Golf Club, the Maroon men left quite an impression with an impressive performance. But while this was a valiant performance, the men could not qualify for DIII Championship as they had left too much ground to cover in the end.
The women, on the other hand, were able to make it and earned a berth. With momentum on their side through Kurtenbach’s stellar performance, the Maroons will go into the event with a significant advantage. With a runner-up position in the UAA championship along with this third placed finish, the Maroons will look to provide another strong showing. They will be looking to beat the all-time UChicago record of fourth place in 2013. The meet will take place this Saturday at Louisville, Kentucky at 11 a.m. EST.
