<st Thursday some superheroes flew over to St. Olaf to take on the Oles at the 4k distance. Unfortunately, the sheer number of Oles overpowered the Carls, but they put up a brave fight and managed to save the damsels in distress.
Colette Celichowski ’15 led the way, preventing the Oles from perfect scoring. She was followed by Shannon Mueller ’12, ending her collegiate cross-country career with a great race.
Aly Wisekal ’14 was next, followed by Carrie Harshbarger ’13. Emily Hillmer ’15 rounded out the scoring for the Knights. She just keeps getting better and better.
As does Aurora Janes ’15, the next Knight. Lindsay Turchan ’15 and Tori Ostenso ’15 enjoyed their return to their high school race distance and Anna Persmark ’15 enjoyed running something shorter. Lauren Chow ’14 and Lucia Childs-Walker ’15 worked together through the finish, chased by Adrienne Bruder ’14.
Julia Reich ’15 and Kiera Wilhelm ’15 paced each other through the race and attacked the finish. Elizabeth Kimberley ’14 had a solid finish to her season and Laura Newcombe ’13 triumphantly returned to the realm of racing following some enforced time off.
The Karhu team will now focus its energy on finals while the rest of the team will head to the NCAA Central Regional championships at Wartburg College. The Knights are currently ranked number one in the region and ninth in the nation following their victory at the conference championships.
While the Knights are the current favorite, it’ll be a battle for the top two spots at the meet. The top two teams will secure an automatic bid to nationals and the next three will be eligible for at-large bids.
You can bet that St. Olaf has their sights set on the Knights. They won’t be fooled by Rachael Klehm ’13 this time around. Nebraska Wesleyan, always an unknown quantity, will bring a few strong front-runners to the meet, including their conference champion and runner-ups, Hannah Kinberg and Hayley Sutter.
Wartburg College showed that they have been building throughout the season at the Iowa conference championships and will be a force to contend with on their home course.
The Knights can handle it though. They haven’t been fazed by anyone else all season and if anything was going to mess with their minds, it was going to be sitting in the top three positions at the 4k mark at the conference meet. They will go and run their own race and see what happens.