Colorado State University Athletics
Colorado State
Roy Griak Invitational
Cross country recap: Men take second at Roy Griak Invitational
9/27/2014 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
By Nate Lake
Athletic Media Relations
Men's Results | Women's Results
ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Colorado State men's cross country team fell just short of victory Saturday at the Roy Griak Invitational, settling for second place and edged only by Southern Utah for the top men's team finish. Redshirt freshman Jerrell Mock, competing in his first-ever collegiate cross country race, led the Rams with an impressive time of 24 minutes, 59.6 seconds in the 8K race. He finished seventh overall while the Rams missed first place by only four points. 


Head Coach Art Siemers was very happy with Mock's incredible performance. "He had a great race, and he's only going to get better from here. This gave him a lot of confidence."


Redshirt sophomore Jefferson Abbey was the other men's runner to finish inside the top 15, taking 15th place with a time of 25:21.5. Senior Andrew Goodman posted a time of 25:32.7, coming in third on the CSU squad and 24th overall. Joe Marchand crossed the finish line in 25:50.5, taking 44th, while senior transfer Byron Jones took 56th with a time of 26:00.6. Freshman Grant Fischer finished in 26:18.7 for 83rd, while Chris Ganem, Adam Hartman, and Ricardo Kaempfen finished with times of 26:30.7, 26:36.9, and 27:27.5, respectively. Freshmen Nick Costello, Nick Korhumel and Justin Weinmeister rounded out the Rams' performances with times of 27:30.8, 27:46.3, and 28:16.6.
The hot and humid conditions in St. Paul posed an unfamiliar environment for the runners, but Siemers had a positive attitude about the team performance. "We're proud of the guys. It wasn't our best race, but we still almost won. The guys are really pumped up and ready to go for next week."


A team victory was the goal, but the Rams, currently ranked No. 29 in the USTFCCCA NCAA Division I National Coaches Poll, finished above three other ranked teams - No. 19 North Carolina, No. 24 Texas, and No. 27 Iowa State - as well as host Minnesota, who took third.

On the women's side, the Rams finished in the top half of team competition, taking 16th place overall out of 35 teams from across the nation. Junior Alexandra Will was CSU's top finisher, crossing the line in 22:45.9 for 74th place and a personal record for a 6K race. Fellow junior Marina Roberts had the Rams' second-best performance on the day, finishing with a time of 23:05.7 while sophomore Sanne Holland came in just behind her with a time of 23:09.5. 


"The women placed better than last year, which is a step in the right direction," Siemers said. "This year's competition was better in quality and number of teams. The women ran really tough. We beat a few key regional teams who were ranked ahead of us in the region. We'll move forward for next week and continue to get better and better."


Sophomore Karlee Schwartzkopf finished in 23:21.4, exactly nine seconds ahead of redshirt freshman McKenna Spillar. Freshman Darby Gilfillan virtually crossed the line with Spillar, finishing in 23:30.7, while fellow freshmen Kara Steinke and Mary Franke posted times of 23:34.8 and 23:49.6. Sophomore Alexandra Hess finished in 23:57.2, while Josephine Bush rounded out the women's finishes with a time of 25:09.1. 


Conference foe Boise State took fourth on the women's side, while No. 3 Michigan State won the women's team title. CSU finished just two spots behind No. 11 Butler, and beat key regional opponent Weber State as well as Mountain West opponents Nevada and Utah State.

The CSU men's cross country team has now finished in second place at each of the last two Roy Griak Invitationals.
Both the men's and women's teams look to continue their early-season success this upcoming weekend. Some athletes will compete at the Notre Dame Invitational on Friday, while others will stay closer to home and compete at the Rocky Mountain Shootout in Boulder, Colo. on Saturday.
