The women’s cross-country team continued their winning ways as they took first place in the UW-Eau Claire Blugold Invitational last Saturday and retained their No. 1 spot in the USTF- CCCA Central Region Ranking. They also moved up four positions to a No. 12 national rankings in the USTFCCCA Coaches’ Poll.

Meanwhile, Carleton’s male cross country squad has not been too shabby itself. The breathless Knights placed fifth in last Friday’s UW-Eau Claire Blugold Invite, allowing them to retain their regional No. 5 ranking, while knocking on the door of the Top 35 in the USTFCCCA National Coaches’ Poll. Two more points and that door is no more.

As for this past weekend, on the women’s side, Friday proved to be quite the day for the Carleton Colleg. Junior Ruth Steinke (Lima, N.Y./Honeoye Falls-Lima) led the Knights, competing against five nationally-ranked Division II and III teams, to a win in the UWEC Blugold Invitational in Eau Claire, Wis., and Steinke ran to a first-place individual finish to lead her team to the impressive victory. For her performance, Steinke was honored Tuesday with her first-ever MIAC Women’s Cross Country Athlete-of-the-Week award.

The Knights had five runners among the top 25 finishers and took the top spot with 49 team points. Coming in a distant second was St Olaf College and the University of Minnesota with 105 points.

“The windy and cool conditions creat- ed some challenges,” said Carleton head coach Donna Ricks. “It was nice to see that our team could compete against top level competition under such adverse circumstances.”

Crossing the line in fifth place was Co- lette Celichowski (Sr./Shorewood, Minn./ Minnetonka) with a time of 22:19.8. First year Dorian Jaffe (Columbus, Ohio) and Nicole Nipper (So./Minnetonka, Minn./ Minnehaha Academy) were next across for Carleton, placing 13th and 22nd re- spectively. Sally Donovan (Jr./Minneap- olis, Minn./South) rounded out the team scoring with a 25th-place finish and a time of 23:07.7.

The men’s team, as mentioned, has a good weekend as well. Hart Hornor (Jr./ Seattle, Wash./Roosevelt) led the charge for 5th-placed Carleton and took second place overall against the stacked field with perhaps their toughest competition of the season. The race featured five teams that are currently ranked in the D- III national polls.

No. 3 St. Olaf College won the race with 48 points followed closely by No. 2 University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire with 52 points. No. 5 Central College was next with 107 points, narrowly edging No. 26 UW-Stout (108 points). Carleton, which is receiving votes in the most recent USTFCCCA national poll, was next with 172 points, besting D-II entries from Michigan Tech, Minnesota-Duluth, and Winona State as well as finishing well ahead of D-III No. 15 UW-LaCrosse, which placed 11th in the team competition with 308 points.

After Hornor, next to finish for Carleton was Jerry Cook-Gallardo (Fy./ Moscow, Idaho/ Moscow Senior) whose time of 26:10.3 was good for 29th overall. Walter Edstrom (So./Plano, Texas/Plano West) was 37th in 26:19.6, followed by Jonah Berry (Jr./Madison, Wisc./Madi- son West)in 40th with a time of 26:19.6. Ryan Hanselman (Fy./Naperville, Ill/Na- perville North) completed the team scoring by taking 85th in a time of 26:56.4.

Many of Carleton’s other sports had a great weekend as well, with men’s and women’s soccer, as well as volleyball and women’s golf, recording victories. Women’s golf, in particular, had an impressive showing at the MIAC Championships sweeping first and second place. Volleyball notched a nice win over ranked St. Benedict in just four sets before beating St. Mary’s later on and Men’s soccer used a “Golden Goal” to overcome St. John’s on overtime. Let’s hope this week is just as exciting.