ST. BONIFACIUS, Minn. – The St. Scholastica women’s cross country team won its ninth consecutive Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Championship today, finishing first with 43 points.
Finishing in second place was the University of Minnesota-Morris with 74 points. In third was Martin Luther College with 99 points and fourth was Northwestern with 102 points. Northland was fifth with 129 points. The championship meet was hosted by Crown College.
Katelyn Meger (
Sr.-Webster, Minn./New Prague) once again led CSS as she finished second overall with a time of 23:20 seconds. Coming in third place overall was
Jessie Lovering (
Jr.-Bemidji, Minn.) with a time of 24:07 seconds.
Kristen Gronbeck (
Fr.-Battle Lake, Minn.) was sixth overall with a time of 24:59 seconds.
Tara Connolly (
Sr.-River Falls, Wis.) was ninth overall, finishing in a time of 25:14 seconds.
Melissa Kempenich (
So.-Little Falls, Minn.) finished 11th with a personal-best time of 25:23 seconds. The Saints as a team had three personal records on the day. Placing 12th was
Jenna Stauffer (
Fr.-Apple Valley, Minn./Eastview) with a time of 25:30 seconds. All of the above runners earn all-conference honors for finishing in the top 12.
Head coach Steve Pfingsten was named the UMAC Coach of the Year.
The Saints will take part in the NCAA Division III Central Regional, hosted by Grinnell College (Iowa), on Saturday, November 14th. The team will bring its top seven runners to the regional. The race is scheduled to begin at noon.