Team Results
| | 1. | Wisconsin | 22 | | 2. | Northwestern | 56 | | 3. | Marquette | 76 | | 4. | Loyola (Ill.) | 85 | | 5. | Illinois State | 141 | | |
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Sept. 5, 2014
MADISON, Wis. -- Thanks to a 1-2-3 finish, the No. 16 Wisconsin women's cross country team began its 2014 season with a victory after winning the Badger Opener on Friday at the Zimmer Championship Course.
UW took the title with a score of 22 points as UW had six of the top-10 finishers in the race. Northwestern was second with 56 points while in-state rival Marquette was third with 76 points.
"For the first time we saw them running together as a team," Wisconsin Director of Track and Field Mick Byrne said. "If you take it back to 2011 we saw the guys win a national championship and a lot of that was just a lot of team running, running together, feeding off the energy off each other, and that's what we're trying to teach the women and they did a great job of that today, especially Emma-Lisa (Murphy), Sarah (Disanza), and Gabi (Anzalone). We just have to tidy up the support cast with the group. I think we will be able to do that."
Wisconsin sophomore Sarah Disanza won the race, finishing the 4-kilometer course in 14 minutes, 3 seconds. Not far behind were junior Emma-Lisa Murphy and senior Gabi Anzalone, as both crossed the line in 14:04.
Junior Molly Hanson was sixth in 14:16, while fellow junior Grace Meurer was seventh in 14:22. Freshman Collette Richter also had a strong showing, claiming 10th in 14:24.
"I'd say we're really excited," Murphy said about the Badgers' performance. "Going into this race we just talked about working together and kind of feeding off of each other's energy and our weaknesses and our strengths, so I think we did a really good job of just pulling together as a team, working together today."
The Badgers will travel next to Iowa City, Iowa on Sept. 20 to compete in the Iowa Big Ten Preview. The meet is set to begin at 8 a.m.
