Tommie Sports - Women's Cross Country
Women's CC 5th of 36 teams at elite D-III race
5th of 36U of M Invite (W), September 27, 2008
Katie Theisen placed fourth out of 497 runners. (Greg Smith photo)
Senior Katie Thiesen placed fourth out of 497 runners Saturday morning to lead the Tommie women's cross country team to a fifth-place finish out of 36 teams in the D-III Maroon race at the Griak Invite.
Nine nationally-ranked teams and 10 of the 12 MIAC squads competed on the University of Minnesota's Bolstad Goilf Course in Falcon Heights. Nine of the top 15 team placers are all from the NCAA Central region.
No. 2-ranked UW-Eau Claire placed first with 110 points. Co-No. 5-rated Wartburg (151) and UW-LaCrosse (160) placed second and third. No. 34-ranked Carleton (170), No. 15 UST (183), No. 4 Luther (202), and unranked Bethel (217) and St. Olaf (232) and No. 32 Washington & Lee placed fifth through ninth. Other ranked teams were No. 19 UW-Platteville, which took 11th, and No. 16 Emory, which placed 16th.
Theisen clocked 22:32 over 6,000 meters on a humid morning for her third consecutive top-10 Griak finish. She was second among 177 conference runners. In 2007, she placed fourth out of 567 runners in 22:44.
Becca Jordahl of UW-River Falls (21:59.8), Bethel's Marie Borner (22:01) and Wartburg's Anna Kraayenbrink (22:16) were the lone runners to beat Theisen.
UST junior Kelly Russ had her best college cross country race as she took 10th in 23:09. In the 2007 Griak, Russ ran 24:06 for 39th place. A track and field All-American, Russ ran 23:08 at the 2007 MIAC cross country meet to place 11th in that race.
Freshman Emma Spoon was 46th in 24:00; soph Alyssa Rassett-Mehl was 55th in 24:08; freshman Nikki Schminski was 68th in 24:20; Helen Shea was 144th in 25:33; and Raynee DeGrio was 146th in 25:33.
St. Thomas will compete Oct. 10 in San Francisco.
For complete results, click here to access Griak webpage, then click on 10th of 10 PDF links, Women's Maroon III results:
http://www.gophersports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=71624&SPID=3309&DB_OEM_ID=8400&ATCLID=1589844
All Greg Smith photos -- click here to view more Greg Smith action photos
Kelly Russ (1611)
Christine Skopec (1814)
Alyssa Rassett-Mehl (1609)
Kaitlin Rattigan (1610)
Maria Altepeter (1600)
L-R, Helen Shea, Raynee DeGrio, katie Theisen, Allie Metzler, Kelly Russ
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