Sept. 24, 2011

Complete Results

TUCSON –The University of Arizona Wildcat men's and women's cross country teams ran at the Roy Griak Invitational in St. Paul, Minn. on Saturday. Freshman Lawi Lalang obliterated the course record by nearly 22 seconds on his way to a first-place finish. Junior Jen Bergman was the top finisher for the women, taking third place.

Lalang won the race with a time of 23:16, beating NC State's Ryan Hill by nearly 30 seconds. The previous course record was 23:38.9 held by Kip Kangogo of BYU, set in 2002.

“Lawi Lalang won it in grand fashion,” head coach James Li said. “He was very impressive. The guys did better than last year,” Coach Li said. “Time-wise, we are making progress.”

The 10th-ranked UA women finished third overall out of 26 teams. Arizona's 131 points was good for third place, while California and Iowa State both had 128 points, tying for first place.

Bergman finished in third place with a time of 20:43 and sophomore Elvin Kibet finished in fourth, running the 6K in 20:47. Deborah Maier of California won the race, clocking a time of 20:30.

“Both Elvin Kibet and Jen Bergman did well,” Li said. “They made a very significant improvement from last year's race. Most of our girls did really well. This year's competition is a little tougher. It was a better field. We wanted to win the whole thing but we still beat some significant teams. Hopefully by the end of the season, it will prove helpful beating those teams.”

Freshman Haley Stenquist was Arizona's third finisher, earning 38th place with a time of 21:34. Sophomore Amanda Russell was 41st, clocking a time of 21:40. Junior Elizabeth Apgar had time of 21:42, good for 45th place. Also competing for Wildcats were junior Melanie McGrath (22:05, 74th) and sophomore Erin Menefee (22:07, 80th).

The men's team finished 19th overall. NC State won the team race with 96 points, Portland took second with 114 points and Minnesota had 153 points to finish in third.

Sophomore Patrick Zacharias finished 91st with a clocking of 25:35. Senior Abdi Hassan finished 121st with an 8K time of 26:03. Junior Rory McLeod was 130th with a time of 26:10. Freshmen Kenji Bierig (26:33), Sam Macaluso (26:31) and Thomas Valente (27:18) also competed for the Wildcats.

The Wildcats compete next on Sat., Oct. 8 at the Grand Canyon Invitational in Goodyear, Ariz.