The Women’s and Men’s Cross Country teams ran at the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship last Saturday, Nov. 1. The meet took place at Como Golf Course in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Runners braved the low temperatures and high winds to run for their place in the conference.
The teams prepared for the meet with mental drive, team support, and different workouts.
On Friday, Oct. 31, the Women’s team turned their workout into a thrift-store run in which they dressed up in crazy outfits to go for their run. The Men’s team had a potluck on the Thursday before the conference meet.
Leading up to the conference meet, the women prepared to race on the type of terrain they would encounter on the race course at Como.
“We prepare by incorporating hills into our regular runs and we also have specific hill workouts in the beginning of the season. We work on improving our endurance over the summer by running higher mileage. In the early portion of the season, we do longer workouts, either threshold runs or hill intervals for conditioning. Toward the end of the season, we decrease our mileage and add more short intervals to improve our overall speed,” Senior Caitlin Fermoyle said.
Fermoyle led the Gustavus women with a seventh place finish in the conference meet.
The men prepare for the race by working on a team mentality.
“You have to believe you can run with the top guys in the conference. A big part of running is mental; being mentally strong, and believing that you can run the fastest,” Sophomore Paul Nordquist said.
Nordquist was the second Gustavus man to cross the finish line and placed twenty-fourth overall.
Both teams finished sixth against 11 other schools in the MIAC. The Gustavus women finished with 175 points behind Macalester College (139), College of St. Benedict (100), University of St. Thomas (94), St. Olaf College (58), and Carleton College (42).
“You have to believe you can run with the top guys in the conference. A big part of running is mental.”—Caitlin Fermoyle
The Gustavus men finished with 155 points behind Hamline University (132), St. John’s College (120), University of St. Thomas (105), Carleton College (72), and St. Olaf College (16).
It was the final meet of the season except for the top seven runners, who will compete at Regionals on Nov. 15.
One of those runners is Knobbe, who was the first to finish of the Gustavus men, finishing eleventh overall in the men’s race.
“There’s something fun about being able to push yourself, about being able to challenge yourself to improve,” Knobbe said. “Running itself may not be fun, but achieving my goals makes everything worth it.”
-Emma Hunt