Cross Country

MADISON, Wisc. – Both the men’s and women’s cross country teams took third place Sunday at the Big Ten championships, highlighted by Stephanie Price’s record-setting (sort of) second-place finish at Wisconsin’s new Zimmer Championships Course.
Price finished in 19 minutes, 56 seconds, just two seconds behind the first-place runner. It is the first sub-20 minute time on a six kilometer course in team history, but the team is hesitant to use the term “record” since the first-year course yielded faster times across the board.

The men’s and women’s cross country teams will have different tasks this weekend, even if the title of the race is the same.
Both teams will travel to Verona, Wisc., just outside Madison, to compete in the Big Ten Championships on Sunday. But after starkly different results at the pre-NCAA meet, expectations are different for each team.
The men’s team struggled to a 12th-place finish while the women’s team continued the trend of exceeding expectations, taking fifth.

The atmosphere seemed relaxed as Gophers runners competed alongside others who were in it just for fun at Saturday morning at Jack’s Run in Falcon Heights.
But there were several Minnesota athletes who didn’t see it that way.
The team will compete in the Big Ten championships next weekend in Madison, Wis., and Saturday’s race was considered a “run-off” to determine the final spot on the roster.
With that spot on the line, tension was palpable in the Gophers’ corner even if the mood was light elsewhere.

The Gophers men’s and women’s cross country teams have taken a light training schedule this week to prepare for arguably the biggest meet so far this season.
Saturday’s Pre-NCAA meet in Terre Huate, Ind., is an opportunity for both teams to collect what may prove to be crucial points towards an at-large bid for the NCAA Championships on Nov. 22.
For non-elite teams like Minnesota, at-large points are critical when trying to convince the NCAA it deserves to compete with the top teams in the nation.

It is rare to find a pair of runners who regularly talk about things as far-reaching as fluid dynamics of blood flow in the heart or tubular velocity of blood vessels while on training runs.
Rarer still are such intellects that run six-kilometer races in under 25 minutes.
Pieter Gagnon, a mechanical engineering major, is the sophomore member of the duo seemingly defined by their proximity — both intellectually and on the course.
He and senior captain Mike Torchia have become good friends through the sport, as well as through their respective academic endeavors.

Redshirt freshman Missa Varpness didn’t run a cross country race until she was in college. One year later, she’s one of the team’s top runners.
Varpness was a swimmer and middle-distance track runner in high school, but when head coach Gary Wilson saw her, he wanted her to run longer distances. As in, from 800 meters to 6,000.
She decided to take him up, and began preparing for the new role the summer after graduating high school.

The women’s cross country team has set its top-12, fully one month into the season and with just two weeks before the Pre-NCAA meet.

The nine runners who competed at last weekend’s South Dakota State meet will all be in the top-12, as well as Steph Price, who missed the meet to attend her sister’s wedding. The final two spots will go to senior captain Kelly Wilson and Cassy Opitz, head coach Gary Wilson said.

Men’s head coach Steve Plasencia said he’ll wait until closer to Pre-NCAAs, which begin Oct. 16, to decide and released his roster.