Northland Sports Online

UWS Women in St. Olauf

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NSO-NEWS RELEASE

 


The youth of the Yellowjacket women’s cross country team looked to build on last week’s season debut at River Falls with another strong performance on Saturday. The stakes were a little larger this time around, however, as the Yellowjackets were one of 16 teams competing at the St. Olaf Invitational in Northfield, Minnesota. In addition to the other 15 teams, the Yellowjackets also had to battle the heat, as temperatures in southern Minnesota soared into the 80s.

“We aren’t used to that anymore. In August it is one thing to run in temperatures and humidity like this, but you don’t expect it in late September,” Yellowjacket Head Coach Glen Drexler said. “But everyone else had to deal with the heat as well. It was the same for everyone.”

The University of Minnesota Duluth brought home first place honors in the meet, finishing the day with 35 points. UW-Eau Claire was the top WIAC team, placing fourth with 137 points. The Yellowjackets as a team placed 16th with 510 points. Individually, Minnesota Duluth’s Samantha Rivard placed first, completing the six-kilometer course in a time of 21:35.6.

For the Yellowjackets, it was once again team captains Kate Weyenberg (Wrightstown, Wis./Wrightstown) and Jackie Erickson (Duluth, Minn./East) leading the way. The juniors both finished the race in under 28 minutes. Weyenberg was the first Yellowjacket to finish, coming in with a time of 27:09. Erickson was not far behind, completing the event with a time of 27:35.1.

“All in all we performed pretty well. We put them through a rugged week of practice and they still came back and competed hard this week,” Drexler said. “We’re a young team and they are learning a lot about racing at the college level and racing at the six-kilometer distance, which is new to most of them. We’ll have some conversations this week about how we can improve – I think we can be a little more aggressive coming off the line, but they are putting in a tremendous effort and we will be just fine.”

Yellowjacket Finishers
Kate Weyenberg (Wrightstown, Wis./Wrightstown) – 27:09.0
Jackie Erickson (Duluth, Minn./East) – 27:35.1
Alissa Boyhtari (Duluth, Minn./Denfeld) – 28:20.9
Sara Schield (Two Harbors, Minn./Two Harbors) – 28:58.0
Brittney Kemi (Cloquet, Minn./Esko) – 29:19.9
Hannah Kautz (Osceola, Wis./Osceola) – 29:56.6
Selina Walters (Eben Junction, Mich./Superior Central) – 29:59.3
Kayla Gibson (Chisago Lakes, Minn./Chisago Lakes) – 30:03.1
Sophia Bornowski (Edina, Minn./Edina) – 30:59.1
Rachel Hills (Hayward, Wis./Hayward) – 33:13.5
Jessica Irvine (Spooner, Wis./Shell Lake) – 34:27.6

Next up for the Yellowjackets is the Blugold Invite, hosted by WIAC rival UW-Eau Claire. The meet, scheduled for Friday, October 3 will get underway at 3:00 p.m. in Colfax, Wis.

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