NORTHFIELD, Minn. - The Gustavus cross country teams competed at the annual Carleton Running of the Cows on Saturday against a number of teams from the conference, region, and neighboring Division II programs. The Gustie women finished eighth out of 22 teams, while the men took 18th out of 21. 

As she has done all season, Molly Liston paced the women's squad with a sixth place individual finish out of 296 runners. Her time of 22:30.0 was 59 seconds behind the winner, Hannah Preisser of Carleton. Sydney Hagen had an impressive race as well, finishing 19th with a time of 23:17.3. Mackenzie Murphy took 66th in 24:19.0, Kailyn Walukas finished 94th in 25:01.5, and Aubrey Mair placed 97th in 25:05.6 to round out the top five for the Gusties. 

"Overall we had a really big training week so we knew we were going to be tired and we've been fighting some sickness on both sides," said Head Coach Brenden Huber. "I'm really happy with the women today, half of the squad had lifetime PR's. We told Molly this was her chance to go play with the big runners and she stuck her nose up there and was leading about half way against some All-Americans, so it was a really good day for her to get some experience out front. Sydney had another great day. We had a lot of ladies step up top to bottom and it was a really good team effort."

Tyler Smith led the men's team by taking 118th place with a time of 27:27.9. Will Janzen was next in 146th place, clocking in at 27:50.4. Carson Roehl (28:15.9), Camden Cilek (28:22.1), and Matthew Berge (28:28.4) finished as a pack in 166th, 172nd, and 175th place, respectively. 

"Our pack is coming along really well. We definitely got some confidence with that mid-pack. Tyler is one of those guys that is sick right now so that really hurt because that's about 50 more points that we would normally get out of him. But we gained some experience and we knew it was going to be a big learning day. If we were going to have an off day it was probably going to be this week with the stuff that we are putting in. We are building for the future. Not the prettiest of days we but we have a lot of momentum going forward."

Gustavus has next week off before compete at the UW-La Crosse Jim Drews/Tori Neubauer Invitational on Oct. 19.