MU Cross Country Teams Have Successful Debut at Phoenix Open

GREEN BAY – The Marquette University men's and women's cross country teams each emerged victoriously at the Phoenix Open on Saturday morning. The meet was hosted by the University of Green Bay.

"We went into today knowing that the meet was going to serve as a good tune up and a 'rust buster' for us," MU interim head coach Sean Birren said. "Our mindset was that we wanted to run together how we have been in practice for the first 3k and really push out for the last 2k. Overall, I thought both teams ran great this morning."

In the men's 5-kilometer race, senior captain Brad Eagan finished first overall with a time of 15:40.67. Ryan Burd (15:45.36), Daniel Pederson (15:48.89), Alex Gill (15:54.51) and August Beyer (15:54.52) all finished in the top-five and within 15 seconds of one another. Sophomore Jordan Janusiak (15:58.35) took sixth-place overall.

"We had an 18-second difference from our first through sixth-place runners and a 33-second gap from top-to-bottom," Birren said. "We're just going to get back to work in training this week and try to get that seventh time up closer to the rest of the pack."

On the women's side, senior captain Caitlin McGauley won the race with a time of 19:02.50. True freshman Kate Jochims, in her first race as a Golden Eagle, placed second (19:04.60). Kendall Pfrimmer (19:07.41), Lauren Neiheisel (19:07.41), Emily Foley (19:10.70) and Laurel Moneysmith (19:15.69) finished third through sixth and within 13 seconds of McGauley's pace-setting time.

"I really liked how the girls ran today," Birren said. We had just an eight-second difference from one through five. We also had a lot of middle-distance kids helping us out today and I know we'll continue to improve over the next few weeks."

The Golden Eagles will be back in action on Friday, Sept. 13 at the Illinois State Invitational at Maxwell Park in Normal, Illinois.

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