The women’s cross country team took first place in a field of 29 teams at the Roy Griak Invitational over the weekend while the men’s team took third place out of 27 teams.

Coach Dan Schwamberger thought the good start to the season is something to be excited about
moving forward.

“I’m very pleased with the outcome of the race,” Schwamberger said. “It’s good from a mental perspective to run strong and do well in the beginning. It builds our
confidence.”

Senior Ashlyn Mauer led the pack for the Blugold women’s team finishing second place out of a pack of 408 runners running the 6,000 meter race in just over 22 minutes.

Senior Sarah Sjostrom and junior Madison Sawyer finished 11th place and 15th place, respectively, helping the team finish in first place for the tournament.

Mauer attributes her successes early in the season to her dedication to the program in the summer and
keeping in shape.

“In order to be a top performer you do need to train through the summer,” Mauer said. “You need to have the drive and motivation to actually do it … I think it is also very beneficial for the girls who participate in track, too, to keep you running
year round.”

The women’s team won this  tournament last year, something that the runners thought they could repeat and was definitely a goal of theirs to come out and win.

Junior Alana Jenkins thought that the goal to repeat along with the coach’s motivation were big tools in the victory.

“Last year we (the women) won so that was a huge goal for us to repeat,” Jenkins said. “My coach really stresses working together and the women’s team has always been good at pack running and helping each other out and that
always helps.”

On the men’s side, the team took second runners up behind conference foes UW-La Crosse and
UW-Platteville.

Senior Jeremy Keiser led the men’s side, finishing fourth out of a total of 272 runners with a time of just under 26 minutes, but he said there is always room for
improvement.

He said that “it was just a medium day for us” and that he knew coming in that “(UW-) La Crosse were going to be gunning for us.”

One of the goals for the men’s team this year was to do well in the conference meet later this season. Kaiser said that after seeing what the conference has to offer this year, he is optimistic about the possibilities.

“As a team, we have talked about our goals like any other team,” Kaiser said. “As a realistic goal this season was at least a top two spot in conference. Looking what we have done so far, we have changed that to winning
conference outright.”

Coach Schwamberger is happy with the outlook of the teams, but says that the men’s team has an opportunity to do something really special this year.

“Right now, there is a lot of parity between both squads,” Schwamberger said. “The women have history on their side as of late, but I think this year that the men’s team is probably the deepest team I’ve seen in my six years as coach. Both teams will be very strong.”

Both teams have the weekend off and will resume competition at
UW-Oshkosh at the Brooks
Invitational on Oct. 13. The conference meet for both teams will take place on Oct. 27 on the campus of  UW-Platteville.