Iowa cross-country’s second finishers become No. 1 after competing at Bradley and Wisconsin
Iowa women placed sixth at the Bradley Pink Classic Invite and Iowa men finished 16th at Pre-Nationals.
Iowa’s Tess Wilberding and Madison Waymire run together during the women’s 3K Hawkeye Earlybird Invitational at Ashton Cross Country on Friday, Sept. 2, 2016.
October 15, 2018
After a weekend of separate competitions, Iowa’s men and women’s cross-country teams have returned home with the women bringing home a sixth-place finish at the Bradley Pink Classic, and the men finishing 16th at the Pre-Nationals.
For both teams, the front-runners for the Hawkeyes changed.
Megan Schott finished first for the Hawkeye women in the 6,000 meters in 21:02, placing 12th overall. The transfer from Iowa State has proven all season she is a valuable addition to the lineup, and she had placed as Iowa’s second finisher in every race this season.
Senior Andrea Shine has finished as the first Hawkeye for the past nine races in both the 2017 and 2018 cross-country seasons. The leading streak ended this weekend after finishing in a time of 21:08 and placing 14th, a 6-second and two-place gap behind Schott.
Following Schott and Shine was Anna Hostetler; the freshman from Parnell, Iowa, placed 27th in 21:25.
“Megan, Andie [Shine], and Anna gave us a great 1-2-3 punch,” head coach Randy Hasenbank said in a release. “That kind of fire power up front really helps the team score.”
To close out the scoring positions for Iowa, freshmen Grace McCabe and Jessica McKee followed in 21:54 and 22:25, respectively.
“I thought Grace McCabe had a great race,” Hasenbank said in a release. “We had a lot of young runners in the lineup. They competed very well and ran very solid times in only their second 6K.”
Similar to the women, the men’s consistent front-runner finished as the Hawkeyes’ second.
Nathan Mylenek led the Hawkeyes in the 8,000 meters, placing 57th in 24:39.7. Until this weekend, the junior has been the second finisher for Iowa in all but one race this season.
Daniel Soto had led the Iowa men consistently this season until this past weekend. The senior finished in 24:52 and placed 81st.
That is a 24-place difference in only 13 seconds. The high traffic at the finish line was a result of 35 teams and 242 harriers in one 8,000-meter race.
RELATED: Men’s X-C heads to Wisconsin, women travel to Bradley
The Pre-Nationals presented Iowa the opportunity to compete against a wide, tough range of harriers.
Of the 35 teams, six teams ranked in the top three of their regions. Northern Arizona (No. 1, Mountain Region), Stanford (No. 2, West Region), Colorado (No. 5, Mountain Region), Oregon (No. 5, West Region) and Wyoming (No. 9, Mountain Region) were the top five teams. Heading into the race, Iowa was ranked No. 9 in the Midwest.
Following Mylenek and Soto was junior Karson Sommer in 25:08, senior Bailey Hess-Withbroe in 25:19, and junior Brandon Cooley in 25:25.
“I thought Karson competed very well, and Bailey ran very strong on the back half of the course,” Hasenbank said in a release. “The gap from 1-5 was much better.”
Iowa cross-country will compete next in the Illinois Open in Champaign, Illinois, on Friday.
