CHICAGO, Ill. – The ninth-ranked Wisconsin women's cross country team had a strong outing in its first Invitational of the season, Saturday morning, placing third overall out of 18 teams at the Loyola Lakefront Invitational.
Freshman
Victoria Heiligenthal lead the way for the Badgers, crossing the line in the 5,000-meter race in 18 minutes, 01.40 seconds.
Her teammates were not far behind!
Wisconsin placed five runners in the top 25, including freshman
Shea Ruhly, who finished 16th (18:13.33), freshman
Sarah Shulze was 18th (18:15.98), junior
Kyleigh Edwards in 21st (18:19.48) and sophomore
Kristen Garcia finishing 24th (18:25.86).
The Badgers' tough performance led to a score of 84 points, in extremely windy and muddy conditions. Northern Illinois won the meet with 60 points while Loyola was close behind in second place with 62 points.
Straight from the course
"We ran two young squads today, were impressed with the toughness and grit the Badger men and women showed- particularly on a course that was incredibly windy and muddy."
"On the women's side, we were lead by three true freshman in
Victoria Heiligenthal,
Sarah Shulze, and
Shea Ruhly, which is always wonderful to see. We need to do a little more work on pack-running with this group, but we had few savvy returners in
Kyleigh Edwards and
Kristen Garcia that helped us keep things moving forward. Our women are working hard, and I was really proud of how they stepped up to the plate today."
-
Head coach Mackenzie Wartenberger
Up next
The Badgers are back in action Friday at the Joe Piane Invitational in South Bend, Indiana. The women's race is scheduled to begin at 12 p.m. (CT).
