<ir="ltr">For the second year in a row, the Carleton Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Team hosted the Running of the Cows. Since Carleton will be the host of the Central Regional meet later this year, the attendance at this meet spiked up dramatically from last year, with 15 women’s teams and 14 men’s teams in attendance, each getting a preview of the course. Despite the increase in teams, both Carleton teams did well, with the women’s team winning the meet and the men’s team finishing 7th out of 14.
The women’s team, ranked first regionally and thirteenth nationally, showed why they are the best team in the region by taking a commanding win at the meet with 47 points. Loras College finished 2nd with a score of 95, 48 points behind the Knights. Emily Kaegi ’18 led the Knights on the 6K course with a time of 22:48.5, good enough for 5th place. Teammates Claire Trujillo ’17 and Sam Schnirring ’19 finished 7th and 8th, with times of 23:19.4 and 23:33.1 respectively. Rounding out the scoring for Carleton were Ruthie Boyd ’20 and Marietta Geist ’20. The Knights depth really stood out during their victory, as the top 5 runners all placed in the top 15 and completed the 6K in under 24 minutes.
Carleton alumni Ruth Steinke ’16 won the women’s 6K in 21:52.0. When asked how having alumni race affects the team, Kaegi responded: “It’s fun to have alumni come back and support us and race with us. But their presence doesn’t go into our strategy.
Kaegi went on to say, “It was really exciting and fun to race at home. It felt good because we know the course really well. As a team, we look at one meet at a time. Part of the team will be racing in New Jersey in two weeks, and I look forward to facing new competition and racing some of the top national teams.
Teammate Ruthie Boyd echoed that sentiment as well. “I felt strong about the race. Since it was at home, I think that we had an advantage in knowing the course really well and knowing the strengths and weaknesses of ourselves and our teammates as well. Experiencing the course in last week’s meet in a race setting and the preparation we put in will help become stronger in November, and I’m really looking forward to racing here again. It was really great to see the meet go so well and to have so much support, and we’re lucky to have a team of people pull off such an excellent event.”
Carleton’s men started fast, holding the top two positions after the first kilometer. However, they eventually slipped to finish 7th in a field of 14 teams with 169 points, one point behind Central College (168) and eleven behind MIAC rival St. Thomas (158).
The men’s team was paced by Tris Dodge ’19, finishing the 8k course in 26:29.5 which placed him 15th in the field. Cameron Meikle ’20 was the next finisher for the Knights, placing 25th with a time of 26:59.9. Rounding out the top 5 were Hiroshi Nakajima ’18, Walter Edstrom ’17 and Keenan Ronayne ’19.
“The race was a lot of fun. The course is beautiful, and running it last weekend will help me find the perfect surge spots and tangents in November, and I can’t wait to re-run it,” Cameron Meikle said. “The fan support is definitely amazing. It’s fun to show off the hard work that we put in. Most people don’t see the miles we put in or the mental games we deal with. The fans make all the early morning runs, hard tempos and track workouts worth it.”
The Knights will have next week off before returning to action, with the men’s team running at the Jim Drews Invitational at La Crosse, WI. The women’s team will have split squad action, as part of the team will travel to New Jersey to compete at the Inter-Regional Border Battle, while the rest of the team will be going to the Tori Neubauer Invitational at La Crosse, WI. Both teams will then compete at the MIAC Championships on October 29 at Como Park Golf Course in St. Paul, before hosting the NCAA Central Region Championships on November 12.