MU Cross Country Makes History at Greater Louisville Classic

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky – The Marquette University cross country teams took advantage of a fast course at the Greater Louisville Classic to set numerous personal records on Saturday morning.

The MU men took sixth place out of 41 teams while the women placed fifth out of 39 teams.

"Our focus this week was to train smart and get set to see how we stacked up against the bigger, ranked schools in our region," MU interim head coach Sean Birren said. "I couldn't have asked for better efforts from both our teams today, I'm really proud of how we ran."

The MU men, who placed sixth in the gold race, earned their best finish at the event since 2011, when they also placed sixth. Senior Daniel Pederson led MU runners for the third straight race, taking 11^th overall out of 370 runners with a new personal-best time of 23:57.3.

12 of the 13 Golden Eagle men set personal bests in the 8k gold race on Saturday morning.

Nine of the 13 MU women's runners who competed in the 5k gold race achieved personal-best times. Senior captain Caitlin McGauley led the pack for the Golden Eagle women, taking 28^th out of 324 runners with a 5k time of 17:41.2. The top five MU women all finished within 21 seconds of one another.

"On girls' side, I loved to see our top five runners finish that close together," Birren said. "We're definitely on the right track as we continue building toward the BIG EAST Championships and making some noise in the postseason."

Both teams have competed in the Greater Louisville Classic seven times in program history, and today the women's team posted its best-ever finish at the event with a fifth-place finish. Their previous best finish at the GLC was ninth, which they took in both 2013 and 2016.

"The competition we faced in Louisville was the best we've seen all year," Birren said. "For both teams to run the way they did was really impressive. From our seniors down to our freshmen, we we're pretty consistent from top-to-bottom and a lot of kids set PR's."

UP NEXT:
Both teams will prepare for the Bradley "Pink" Classic on Friday, Oct. 18 in Peoria, Illinois. They'll head to the Leatherneck Invitational Oct. 25 at Western Illinois before heading home for the BIG EAST Championships on Nov. 2.

MEN'S GOLD RACE:
6th of 41 (370 places)
11. Daniel Pederson: 23:57.3*
19. Ryan Burd: 24:12.1*
44. Brad Eagan: 24:31.9*
80. August Beyer: 24:52.8*
110. Jordan Janusiak: 25:06.3*
127. Alex Gill: 25:12.0*
132. Paolo Tiongson: 25:14.1*
--
138. Johnny Hyland: 25:18.0*
150. Danny Peterson: 25:22.7*
192. Greg Van Hollen: 25:42.4*
196. Patrick Bruch: 25:44.9
206. Matthew Cavanaugh: 25:47.6*
226. Josh Urban: 25:51.7*

WOMEN'S GOLD RACE:
5th of 39 (342 places)
28. Caitlin McGauley: 17:41.2*
32. Kendall Pfrimmer: 17:43.6*
35. Lauren Neiheisel: 17:45.0*
47: Emily Foley: 17:54.4*
60: Kate Jochims: 18:02.9*
66. Laurel Moneysmith: 18:10.8*
119. Kalina Gardiner: 18:34.1*
--
138. Hannah Ray: 18:42.7*
144. Grace Dargiewicz: 18:44.0*
177. Emma Moravec: 18:55.2
187. Mary Rose Flood: 18:59.8
200. Emily Noone: 19:07.0
230. Sophie Bolich: 19:18.7

*Personal-best time

HISTORY AT GREATER LOUISVILLE CLASSIC:
2019:
*Men: 6^th
*Women: 5^th
2018:
Men: T-14^th
Women: T-17^th
2017:
Men: 18^th
Women: 15^th
2016:
Men: 20^th
Women: 9^th
2013:
Men: 14^th
Women: 9^th
2012:
Men: 23^rd
Women: 22^nd
2011:
*Men: 6^th
Women: 20^th

*Best team finish at Greater Louisville Classic

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