University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
29th Annual Roy Griak Invitational
Minnesota Places Seventh at Griak Invitational
9/27/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country
Women's Gold Race Results | Griak Invitational Central | Griak Recaps
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FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. - The No. 28 Minnesota women's cross country team finished seventh of 35 teams in the Jack Johnson Women's Gold Division I Race at the 2014 Griak Invitational. Ten cross country races took place at Les Bolstad Course on a warm, sunny Saturday afternoon.
Redshirt junior Kaila Urick and redshirt freshman Danielle Anderson led the Gophers. Urick placed 25th overall in 22:01.1, and Anderson, running just her third collegiate cross country race, was 35th in 22:09.9.
Minnesota's top seven runners all finished in the top 82 of the nearly 400-runner field. The Gophers scored 225 points for their seventh-place showing and were just 21 points out of fifth place.
"I think it was about a 'B' day for us today," head coach Sarah Hopkins said. "It was solid, especially considering the conditions with the heat and the humidity. Our goal was a top-10 finish, and we met that goal. But, knowing how close fifth place was, it would have been nice to be up there."
Behind Urick and Anderson, redshirt junior Liz Berkholtz was the third Gopher finisher, clocking a 22:21.3 for 47th place overall. Freshman Bailey Ness came in 53rd in 22:25.2, and redshirt sophomore Haley Johnson completed the Gophers' top five in 22:37.5 for 66th place.
"There were a couple of really stellar performances," Hopkins said. "Danielle Anderson ran fantastic as our second runner today. She's a kid that gets better as the distances get longer. Bailey Ness was our fourth runner today and ran really well. The other top five ran well, too."
The Gophers navigated their home course among some of the nation's top teams. No. 3 Michigan State won the team title with 66 points, led by sophomore Rachele Schulist in fifth overall and three top-12 finishers in total. No. 9 Iowa State (102), No. 30 North Carolina (174), No. 20 Boise State (185) and Baylor (204) rounded out the top five Women's Gold Race teams.
"Due to the heat, I think our team started out a little bit conservative, which was really great," Hopkins said. "They moved well. Had it not been so hot, I think we would have started out a little more aggressively and probably come through it even better. You never know, it could have played to our advantage that we were smart early. As it was, everyone deals with it but it definitely would have been nicer about 20 degrees cooler."
Arizona State came in sixth place led by senior Shelby Houlihan, who successfully defended her Griak title from a year ago and became just the third Woman's Gold Race champion to win back-to-back titles in the 29 years of the Griak Invitational. Houlihan claimed the 2014 individual title in 20:34.5, edging runner-up Rachel Johnson of Baylor by 6.5 seconds.
Next week, the Gophers are set to race at the UW-Eau Claire Blugold Invite on Friday and the SDSU Classic on Saturday.
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Players Mentioned
