FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. – The Concordia University Wisconsin Women's Cross Country team competed at the Roy Griak Invitational Saturday afternoon. The Falcons finished 11th out of 20 teams at a meet consisting of several nationally ranked teams.
The Women's Division III race was at 9:00 a.m., which was good considered the temperatures throughout the day. The Falcons had several strong performances in the morning run and were once again paced by freshman Bethany Coop (Mora, Minn.) as she ran a 25:29.15, finishing 70th out of 300 runners while running in her home state.
Freshman Nora Imperl (Greenfield, Wis. - pictured) continued to impress as she was the second Falcons runner to cross the finish line. Imperl ran a 25:32.30, finishing just behind Coop. "Nora just keeps impressing and is really running great so far," said coach Russ DeLap in his post-race comments.
Another runner who stood out to DeLap on Saturday was junior Jessica Rice (Canton, Mich.). Rice ran her best time on the course at the Les Bolstad Golf Course, completing the 6K in a time of 27:18.30.
"Jessica ran a course PR today by a minute when most ran a minute slower," said DeLap. "We worked hard together up to this point to have this type of race and today it happened."
Rice was the sixth Falcon to finish the course. Sophomore Ashley Scheele (Kohler, Wis.) was third for CUW, running a 25:45.6 and she was followed by junior Larissa Schlitz (DeForest, Wis.) at 26:27.3. The final runner to count towards the Falcons team score was freshman Cassandra Sprotte (Abbotsford, Wis.), as she clocked in at 26:28.9.
Freshman Hannah Kruk (Waukesha, Wis.) ran her first collegiate race today, and as DeLap said, finished like a champ, with a sprint to the finish.
UW-La Crosse won the team title Saturday by finishing with 60 points and three runners in the top 10. The Eagles defeated St. Thomas (Minn.) by nine points. Laura Mead of UWL was the top runner, completing the course in 22:39.9.
The Falcons will have next weekend off before competing at the Benedictine Invite on Friday, October 10. The women's race is scheduled for a 4 p.m. start.
