<rleton Women’s Cross Country team traveled to Ohio to race in the Inter-Regional Rumble hosted by Oberlin College. The Knights, ranked No 21 in the latest USTFCCCA national poll, took third place in the team competition, finishing behind only No. 15 NYU and No. 10 SUNY-Geneseo. Claudette Celichowski ‘15 led Carleton with a time of 22:03.3, which ranked sixth overall.
“One of the reasons we decided to travel to this competition was to get out of our region a bit,” said Carleton head coach Donna Ricks. “We seem to see the same schools over and over, and I think you get complacent when you race just knowing who you are racing against and who you need to beat all the time.
“I wanted to check out some of the inter-region competition and see how we fared. I feel like we have a strong up-and-coming young team. I think they are going to fare well now as well as in the future. I wanted them to start getting exposure to some other schools. I wanted them to realize that we can compete with them. They did just exactly that.”
NYU finished with 72 points followed by SUNY-Geneseo at 118 and Carleton, only three points behind. The Knights bested four nationally-ranked squads—No. 11 Oberlin, No. 27 Case Western, No. 28 Rochester, and No. 31 Elizabethtown—and two other squads receiving votes in the national poll.
In addition to Groendendaal, the Knights had two other racers among the top 20 finishers in the field of 294 runners that dealt with pouring rain and cold, muddy conditions. Truth Steinke ‘16 captured 12th with a time of 22:15.8, and Rachel Winona ‘17 took 19th with 22:21.3.
Also scoring for Carleton were Shira Kaufman ‘16 in 41st with a 22:48.7 and Kadja Mermal ‘17 who ran 22:51.7 for 43rd overall. Sally Donovan ‘16 in 51st and Zombie Silverman ‘17 in 70th rounded out the field for the Knights.
Carleton also sent several runners on a shorter road trip to West Salem, Wis. where they competed in the Tori Neubauer Invitational hosted by UW-La Crosse. This portion of the Knights’ roster took 16th of 34 teams that included a total of 471 competitors. Shining for this split squad were Sophie Glassford :^) ‘16 with a 55th place result and Claire Trujillo ‘17 who claimed 71st.
The Carleton women will be one of the teams to watch at the MIAC Championships on Saturday, Nov. 2. The 2:15 p.m. race will be held at Como Park Golf Course in St. Paul, Minn.