Men XC Third, Women Fourth, at Wisconsin

Sept. 4, 2015

VERONA, Wis. - The Marquette University men's and women's cross country teams kicked off the 2015 season at the Badger Classic, hosted by Wisconsin at the Thomas Zimmer Cross Country course, with the men taking third and women taking fourth amid nearly 90-degree temperatures.

The men were led by sophomore Alec Miller, who passed several runners on the uphill finish to place second overall with a time of 19:00.7. Two freshmen finished in the top-four for the Golden Eagles with Jon Klaiber coming in ninth overall (second on the team) and Brad Eagan taking 16th overall (fourth on the team). Junior Nate Gomoll was the third finisher for MU with a time of 19:33.5, followed by William Hennessy in 19th with a time of 19:50.9.

"The first meet is always interesting because you never really know how the weather is going to present and the fact that a lot of people haven't raced in a while," head coach Mike Nelson said. "Overall, I'm really happy with how the men did. I'm really liking where the men's team's energy is right now. In addition to Alec, who had a great kick at the end, we had two freshmen in the top-four and several other guys behind them that also ran really strong. I think we will only get better as the season goes on."

A total of 17 men's runners competed in the opener at Zimmer Cross Country Course, the same course that the team will compete at for the NCAA Great Lakes Regional in November.

On the women's side, junior Brittney Feivor led a group of 10 on the 4K course with a third-place finish in a time of 15:12 after leading most of the way.

"In general, I thought we did pretty well," Nelson said. Brittney taking the lead around the 2K mark and really pressing the pace, that was nice to see. Nora Keller, a freshman, running strong in for third, and Nicole Ethier, who had never run cross country before in her life, and she scored for us as our number five.

"It was a fun day on that side for the ladies and I'm really excited to see where this team can go from here," Nelson added. "It was a great start, but I think we have a lot of room for improvement as well."

Rounding out the top-five for the Golden Eagles was sophomore Jennifer Parker and redshirt sophomore Abigail Busse, who finished second and fourth on the team and 12th and 33rd overall, respectively.

FULL MARQUETTE RESULTS:

MEN

PL NAME TIME PACE

2 Alec Miller 19:00.7 5:06

9 Jon Klaiber 19:17.7 5:11

15 Nate Gomoll 19:33.5 5:15

19 Brad Eagan 19:43.5 5:18

22 William Hennessy 19:50.9 5:20

24 Ryan Shields 19:54.8 5:21

26 Patrick Campbell 19:58.5 5:22

31 Cody Haberkorn 20:01.1 5:23

33 Jack Carpenter 20:06.1 5:24

34 Brendan Franz 20:06.4 5:24

36 Henry Mierzwa 20:08.8 5:25

38 Kevin Ryan 20:20.7 5:28

43 Grant von der Lippe 20:28.4 5:30

44 Mitchell Kwapick 20:28.4 5:30

46 Zach Wehner 20:35.3 5:32

48 Christian Zambrano 20:40.1 5:33

67 Donald McDonald 22:17.3 5:59

WOMEN

3 Brittney Feivor 15:12.0 5:50

12 Jennifer Parker 15:47.7 6:04

19 Nora Keller 15:55.3 6:07

33 Abigail Busse 16:40.2 6:24

39 Nicole Ethier 16:50.9 6:28

52 Hannah Gorin 17:15.8 6:37

54 Maeve McDonald 17:19.9 6:39

60 Maggie O'Loughlin 17:39.3 6:46

65 Isabel Lopez 17:46.6 6:49

72 Kyra Gudex 18:10.7 6:58

UP NEXT:
Marquette will be idle until the National Catholic Championships, hosted by Notre Dame, Friday, Sept. 18. The race is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. Central time at the Burke Golf Course in Notre Dame, Indiana.