Men’s: Men’s XC team finishes middle of the pack at Wisconsin Invitational
ASU’s men’s cross-country team finished 20th overall out of 36 at the Wisconsin Invitational.
The Invitational is crucial to the scoring needed to make the NCAA championships.
The finish was not what coach Louie Quintana wanted to see, but he said doesn’t consider it an overall bad performance from his squad.
“It’s sort of like kissing your sister right there,” Quintana said of the
It’s not the worst finish for the team that is also ranked 20th nationally.
“We were all expecting and hoping for a little bit better,” he said.
Quintana said his expectation for the team was for them to finish in the top 12 based on the talent on the team and how they have been running in practice.
The team was in position to finish in the top 12. With about seven minutes to go in the race, ASU was in 13th place, looking to make a move.
Quintana said that critical point was the key moment in the race where the team could have moved up but ultimately fell short of that goal.
Quintana said the team still lacks a bona fide frontrunner to lead them and get them over the hump during races.
“We really need that low-stick guy on the men’s side,” Quintana said.
Quintana believes sophomore Ryan Herson can be that guy for the team because of how much better he runs in practice.
Senior Garrett Seawell continues to be the catalyst for the men’s side, and he finished first for ASU with a time of 24:07 in the 8,000-meter event.
Quintana said last week that the seven spot on the team was going to be crucial to the success of the team and was satisfied with the performance of seven spot this week.
“They closed the gap tremendously, our seven this year is better than it was last year,” Quintana said.
Next week ASU will be at the conference championships in Boulder, Colo., the race means more for bragging rights within the PAC -12 than it will for the overall point race for the NCAA championships.
Women’s: Houlihan continues her All-American season by finishing 4th at Wisconsin Invitational
Junior Shelby Houlihan carried the women’s cross-country team to 14th place at the Wisconsin Invitational with another strong performance, finishing in 4th place overall with a time of 19:32 in the 6,000-meter event.
The women’s team was projected to finish 31st and were able to surpass that projection by finishing in 14th place overall.
Coach Ryan Cole said he was pleased with the overall performance of the team.
“It was a positive step forward for the group.” Cole said. “The girls ran very purposefully and they were very assertive in the beginning.”
Cole said Houlihan continues to lead by example with her strong showing Saturday afternoon.
Momentum is important for this team and Cole believes that Houlihan’s dedication and performance to this point has propelled others on the team.
“The pieces are coming together," Cole said."It just takes time and you need opportunities and repetitions, and we keep having those, so we’ll continue to get better."
Reach the reporter at lzazueta@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @lorenzozazueta
