<st Friday, the Carleton College Women’s Cross Country team crossed the border into the Badger State to take on an impressive field at the UW-Eau Claire Blugold Invitational. The Knights, ranked No. 15 nationally finished in fifth place, third among Division III team in the competition.
Racers from the Division I program at the University of Minnesota won the meet with 44 team points. UW-La Crosse was next at 94 points, followed by St Olaf (105), D-II Winona State (124), and Carleton (133) rounding out the top five. The Knights finished ahead of a trio of nationally-ranked squads: No. 22 St. Scholastica, No. 28 Luther, and No 33 UW-Stevens Point.
The Knights were led by Ruth Steinke ‘16 who ran a time of 22:40, which was good enough for a 12th-place overall finish. Colette Celichowski ‘15 also finished in the top 20, running 18th overall in a time of 22:51.
The Knights had three other racers crack the top 50 place finishers. Winona Rachel ‘17 was 26th with a time of 23:15. Following closely behind was Kazia Mermel ‘17 in 23:30, good for for 32nd overall out of the 424 runners. Shira Kaufman ‘15 scored a 45th-place finish, completing the race in 23:50.
The Knights will resume action Sat., Oct. 19 when they will visit UW-La Crosse for the Tori Neubauer Invitational. The race is scheduled to begin at 11:30am at Maple Grove Country Club in West Salem, Wis.