Marquette Completes Action at Bradley "Pink" Classic

PEORIA, Ill. – The Marquette University men's and women's cross country teams competed against nearly 300 entries on each side at the annual Bradley "Pink" Classic on Friday afternoon.

It was a highly competitive field today at the Newman Golf Course, the site of both the Missouri Valley Conference and the NCAA Midwest Regional championships.

The Marquette men placed ninth out of 33 teams and were two spots ahead of nationnaly-ranked Cincinnati. Junior Daniel Pederson took 28th overall in a field of nearly 275 runners. Meanwhile, the women placed 26th out of 39 teams, led by senior Mary Hanson, who took 23rd place overall in a field of 298 runners.

"It was fun and challenging cross country conditions. Overall, a great course, but it was muddy out there today," Marquette head coach Mike Nelson said. "Our number one runners really ran a tremendous race. Mary was competitive, passing girls throughout, while Daniel ran a smart and tough race, working his way up as the race went on."

Pederson put forth his best effort of the season and returned to action after missing the team's previous competition at Louisville back on Sept. 29. His time of 25:10 finished ahead of senior Jon Klaiber, who gave Marquette a great 1-2 punch after his 56th place finish in 25:33.

Ryan Burd (64th) finished third on the squad, while Alex Gill (110th) and Patrick Bruch (115th) highlight the team's top-five finishers. Matt Cavanaugh (144th) and Paolo Tiongson (148th) rounded out the top-seven.

"On the men's side, I thought we had a really solid day today," Nelson said. "The guys moved up strong throughout the race and it seemed like we were making consistent passes throughout."

On the women's side, Hanson was the team's top finisher for the fourth time in four races. Her time of 21:22.6 was a mere two seconds outside of a top-20 finish. The next-closest finisher for the Golden Eagles was more than a minute behind. Caitlin McGauley (131st) was second on the squad, followed by Kendall Pfrimmer (162nd), Emily Foley (194th), Marlie Houston (200th), Emma Moravec (211th) and Nora Keller (215th).

"Things just did not click today," Nelson said. "We had some individuals that performed admirably today, but on the whole, our team was not in the position we wanted to finish. We'll take the lessons we learned today to prepare for the championship portion of our season."

The Golden Eagles face their final tune-up before the BIG EAST Championships (Oct. 27) when they travel back to Illinois to compete in the Illini Open on Friday afternoon, Oct. 19, in Champaign.

Keep up with the Marquette cross country program through social media by following on Twitter (@MUTFXC) and Instagram (@MUTFXC) and `liking' on Facebook (/MUTFXC).