By Evan Carlin

Oct. 21, 2015

The men’s cross country team finished in 24th place out of 45 teams and the women’s squad finished in 35th place out of 46 at the AAE Invitational on Oct. 17 in Winneconne, Wisconsin hosted by UW-Oshkosh. 

Sophomore Brett Harms led the men’s team with a 27th place finish out of over 400 runners and a time of 25:10. 

Amy Kahl led the women’s side with a 102nd-place finish and a time of 23:05.

Harms and Kahl were both pleased with the weekend’s efforts.

“I was most impressed with the number of teams there, the high level of competition they brought to the meet, and the fact that I think it was said 13 different states were represented at the meet, which is something I’m not used to seeing at all,” Kahl said.

Harms thought the invitational was “amazing.”  Harms went on to say, “this served as the pre-national meet, as UW-Oshkosh is also the host site for this year’s NCAA Championship, so some of the best teams from all over the country were in attendance.”

Although Harms and Kahl managed to put up a solid performance, they are looking to improve in the weeks to come.

“I was pretty happy with how the race, especially considering the high caliber field,” Harms said. “This meet was somewhere between Regionals and Nationals in terms of difficulty, so I was very pleased with how the race went overall. There’s still a lot of work to be done, and there were some runners that I hope to beat down the road, but overall it was a good day.”

Kahl agreed with Harms.

“A lot of people were a little disappointed in their performance, as was I in mine, but we know that this meet was a good experience for us to prepare for the more important meets coming up,” Kahl said. “It is better to iron out the wrinkles now instead of two weeks from now.” 

The ’Hawks continue its pursuit of a strong finish to the season.

“Being in one of the most competitive conferences in the country, I’m hoping to finish within the top 10 of the [WIAC Championship]race,” Harms said.

Kahl also would like to see herself finish top 10. 

“To do this, I am going to train to the best of my ability, but listen to my body when it needs some rest,” Kahl said.

The men’s and women’s team will return to competition Oct. 23rd in the UW-Oshkosh Invitational.