The Blugolds had another strong team performance at the home Blugold Open on Friday afternoon at Whitetail Golf Course near Colfax, WI. The women’s team finished 2nd of 16 teams behind the University of Minnesota, and the men finished 1st of 16 beating a deep field that included UW-La Crosse, St. John’s, St. Olaf and St. Thomas.
On the women’s side, Alyssa Sybilrud (jr.-Burnsville, MN) had a very strong race battling back and forth with All-American Simone Childs-Walker (Carleton) to the finish. Alyssa ended up taking 2nd of 313 two seconds behind Childs-Walker with a 6K time of 21:50. Elly Prunty (sr.-Antigo) and Margaret Ho (sr.-WI Rapids) also had strong races. Elly finished 5th overall in 22:18 and Margaret finished 9th in 22:46. Both Elly and Margaret did a great job of moving up throughout the entire race. Their places during the race at the 1600, 3200, 4800 and finish were as follows: Elly – 19th, 6th, 6th, 5th and Margaret – 25th, 11th, 10th, 9th. Rounding out the top 5 for the Blugold women were Molly Woodford (sr.-Waukesha South) – 16th, 23:06 and Maria Peloquin (sr.-Prescott) – 27th, 23:23. Overall, I was pleased with the women’s results; however, a few of the women were a bit too aggressive the first third of the race, which cost them during the last third. Therefore, the focus during the upcoming weeks will be on being a bit more controlled the first third so they are able to finish strong.
Here’s a link to the complete Blugold women’s results:
http://www.uwecblugolds.com/stats/wcc/2010/wcc_blugold_100110.pdf
The men’s team had one of best performances I’ve seen in my four years coaching at Eau Claire. They did an excellent job being patient the first few miles, working together from mile 3 to 4 and finishing strong the final mile. Thomas Breitbach (sr.-Muskego) led the men finishing 4th of 314 in an 8K time of 25:46. Aaron Easker (so.-Wittenberg Birnamwood), Jeremy Kieser (jr.-Verona) and Max Renner (sr.-Green Bay East) followed closely behind finishing in 7th (25:53), 10th (25:56), and 11th (25:58). Aaron Easker closed his last 1600 in 5:04 and moved from 14th at the 4 mile mark up to 7th at the finish. Michael Borglin (jr.-Whitewater) rounded out the top five placing 20th in 26:13. This race has the men’s confidence very high, because they now know they can compete with anyone in the conference. The key now is to stay patient focusing on the little things (sleep, recovery, nutrition, etc.) to stay injury free so they can race well when it counts. There are currently 9 men’s teams ranked nationally in the Midwest region, 5 will go to nationals, which highlights the importance of being ready when in counts.
Here’s a link to the complete Blugold men’s results:
http://www.uwecblugolds.com/stats/mcc/2010/mcc_blugold_100110.pdf
For those of you who want more cross country highlights, WEAU TV 13 in Eau Claire did a news story last week on the men and women. Here’s a link to the video clip:
http://www.weau.com/sports/headlines/104127344.html
The next race for the Blugolds is the UW-La Crosse Jim Drews / Tori Neubauer Invitational at Maple Grove Golf Course near West Salem, WI on Saturday, October 16th. The men race at 10:30 am with the women to follow at 11:30 am. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.
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