University of Minnesota Athletics
Friday, September 1
St Paul, MN
6:00 PM
University of Minnesota
vs
Oz Memorial
Players Mentioned
/ Men's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Men's Cross Country
/ Men's Cross Country
/ Men's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
Distance
/ Men's Cross Country
/ Men's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Men's Cross Country
/ Men's Cross Country
Photo by: Bjorn Franke
Gophers Start Off Season Strong at Oz Memorial
9/1/2023 9:05:00 PM | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country
Emma Atkinson won the women's race, her first career cross country victory.
MINNEAPOLIS -- The University of Minnesota cross country teams kicked off the start of the 2023 cross country campaign on Friday night at the Oz Memorial at the Les Bolstad Golf Course in Falcon Heights. The women's team cruised to a team victory in the 5K event led by Emma Atkinson while the men's team executed the team's race plan with all nine attached athletes finishing within one second of one another and inside the top 17 runners.
"Today we kicked off the season with an overall solid day on the course," cross country head coach Sarah Hopkins said. "You are always going to see a little bit of nerves and a little bit of rust in the first meet, especially one that is a bit warmer like ours was today. We had some really great standouts, highlighted by Emma Atkinson who looked super smooth. We are excited about the potential of these groups. We'll take a lot of lessons we learned from today and bring them into next week at Wisconsin."
Minnesota was led on the women's side by Emma Atkinson, who is a returning All-Region performer from a season ago. The victory for the redshirt-junior is the first of her career in cross country, clocking a time of 18:10.0. On the men's side redshirt freshman Shane Griepentrog was the first to cross the finish line for the Maroon and Gold in his official debut, clocking a time of 15:58.0 to finish seventh overall.
Out of Minnesota's top 16 attached runners, four posted lifetime bests at the 5K distance.
WOMEN'S 5K
The young Gophers' squad finished first overall with a total of 29 points, besting Drake (72) and Minnesota-Duluth (86). Minnesota also had a number of individual performers who competed as unattached athletes, with those individuals mathematically finishing second overall with 49 points with all five of those unattached student-athletes scoring inside the top 16 of the competition.
Plymouth, Minn., native Emma Atkinson was the first to cross the finish line for the 'U', posting a solid season-opening time of 18:09.93, posting an average mile time of 5:50.5 during the competition. Her victory came nearly six full seconds ahead of the runner-up finisher from Drake, Carmen Krawcynski Gonzalez. In total five Gophers made their debut in the Maroon and Gold uniform on Friday with Zoie Dundon leading that group of redshirt-freshmen with a ninth-place finish in a time of 19:04.0.
MEN'S 5K
The men's 5K race saw the Gophers claim a runner-up team finish. Drake won the team competition with 25 points while Minnesota-Duluth was third with 58 points. The Maroon and Gold, who trained through the season-opening competition, executed the race plan to perfection, posting 12 attached and unattached athletes within one second of one another on Friday night. The Gophers saw a total of five individuals make their Maroon and Gold debut with Griepentrog leading the way with the seventh place finish overall.
UP NEXT
Minnesota will be tested next week at the Wisconsin Preview, which is set for Sept. 8, in Madison, Wis. The meet will be a preview to the Big Ten Championships, which is also hosted in Madison in October.
GOPHER WOMEN'S TOP 8 RESULTS
1st. Emma Atkinson, 18:10.0
4th. Taylor Kreitinger, 18:21.3 (PR)
5th. Brianne Brewster, 18:29.5
9th. Zoie Dundon, 19:04.1
10th. Izzy Roemer, 19:04.1
11th. Erin Reidy, 19:10.3 (PR)
14th. Ceci Howes, 19:16.7 (PR)
16th. Elsa Bergman, 19:23.4
GOPHER MEN'S TOP 8 RESULTS
7th. Shane Griepentrog, 15:58.0
8th. Emmet Anderson, 15:58.1
9th. Griffin Ward, 15:58.1
10th. Owen Lindseth, 15:58.2
11th. Aaron Leavens, 15:58.3 (PR)
12th. Eli Hoeft, 15:58.3 (PR)
14th. Leo Goodman, 15:58.5
15th. Dan VanAcker, 15:58.5
"Today we kicked off the season with an overall solid day on the course," cross country head coach Sarah Hopkins said. "You are always going to see a little bit of nerves and a little bit of rust in the first meet, especially one that is a bit warmer like ours was today. We had some really great standouts, highlighted by Emma Atkinson who looked super smooth. We are excited about the potential of these groups. We'll take a lot of lessons we learned from today and bring them into next week at Wisconsin."
Minnesota was led on the women's side by Emma Atkinson, who is a returning All-Region performer from a season ago. The victory for the redshirt-junior is the first of her career in cross country, clocking a time of 18:10.0. On the men's side redshirt freshman Shane Griepentrog was the first to cross the finish line for the Maroon and Gold in his official debut, clocking a time of 15:58.0 to finish seventh overall.
Out of Minnesota's top 16 attached runners, four posted lifetime bests at the 5K distance.
WOMEN'S 5K
The young Gophers' squad finished first overall with a total of 29 points, besting Drake (72) and Minnesota-Duluth (86). Minnesota also had a number of individual performers who competed as unattached athletes, with those individuals mathematically finishing second overall with 49 points with all five of those unattached student-athletes scoring inside the top 16 of the competition.
Plymouth, Minn., native Emma Atkinson was the first to cross the finish line for the 'U', posting a solid season-opening time of 18:09.93, posting an average mile time of 5:50.5 during the competition. Her victory came nearly six full seconds ahead of the runner-up finisher from Drake, Carmen Krawcynski Gonzalez. In total five Gophers made their debut in the Maroon and Gold uniform on Friday with Zoie Dundon leading that group of redshirt-freshmen with a ninth-place finish in a time of 19:04.0.
MEN'S 5K
The men's 5K race saw the Gophers claim a runner-up team finish. Drake won the team competition with 25 points while Minnesota-Duluth was third with 58 points. The Maroon and Gold, who trained through the season-opening competition, executed the race plan to perfection, posting 12 attached and unattached athletes within one second of one another on Friday night. The Gophers saw a total of five individuals make their Maroon and Gold debut with Griepentrog leading the way with the seventh place finish overall.
UP NEXT
Minnesota will be tested next week at the Wisconsin Preview, which is set for Sept. 8, in Madison, Wis. The meet will be a preview to the Big Ten Championships, which is also hosted in Madison in October.
GOPHER WOMEN'S TOP 8 RESULTS
1st. Emma Atkinson, 18:10.0
4th. Taylor Kreitinger, 18:21.3 (PR)
5th. Brianne Brewster, 18:29.5
9th. Zoie Dundon, 19:04.1
10th. Izzy Roemer, 19:04.1
11th. Erin Reidy, 19:10.3 (PR)
14th. Ceci Howes, 19:16.7 (PR)
16th. Elsa Bergman, 19:23.4
GOPHER MEN'S TOP 8 RESULTS
7th. Shane Griepentrog, 15:58.0
8th. Emmet Anderson, 15:58.1
9th. Griffin Ward, 15:58.1
10th. Owen Lindseth, 15:58.2
11th. Aaron Leavens, 15:58.3 (PR)
12th. Eli Hoeft, 15:58.3 (PR)
14th. Leo Goodman, 15:58.5
15th. Dan VanAcker, 15:58.5
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Tuesday, September 02
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Monday, November 25
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