Both the UW-Whitewater men’s and women’s cross country teams took first place in the second annual Gene Davis Invitational hosted by Lawrence University at the Reid Municipal Golf Course in Appleton Saturday.
Seven Warhawk runners finished in the top 11 with Dan Machmueller and Mathias Werve coming in first and second place respectively in the men’s 8k race. Machmueller crossed the finish line with the fastest time for the ‘Hawks all year with a 26:26.77 finish.
Alyssa Duncan and Madeline Roznos finished first and second in the women’s 6k event with Duncan setting a personal record time of 23:51.02 followed by Roznos setting her own personal record at 24:06.59.
“Our teams were excited to have a good meet this weekend,” said Duncan. “The plan was for all of us to run the first half of the race pretty relaxedand then try and move up and pass people during the second half. It worked out really well and overall everyone was happy with how they competed.”
Other Warhawk runners on the men’s side that had great finishes were Joe Dixon who finished in fourth place and Christopher Kautza, Matthew
Rudquist along with Kevin Buntman who took 7th, 8th and 9th place respectively. Ben Knapp rounded off the top five for Whitewater with an 11th place finish making the finale team score of 22 compared to the second place score of 68 posted by UW-Oshkosh.
On the women’s team Janna Wise and Megan Gang crossed the line for fifth and sixth place finishes with Amanda Brom rounding out the top 10 finishers in ninth place. The Warhawk women ended the event with a team score of 23 that bested the second place UW-Stevens Point squad who finished with 61 total points.
“I think a lot of people on the team have stepped up this season,” said Duncan. “We had big shoes to fill from losing a lot of runners from last season and I think a lot of our upper classmen have done a good job stepping to the plate.”
The ‘Hawks next event will be in Winneconne, Wis. Saturday, Oct. 15 to compete in the Brooks Invitational at the Lake Breeze Golf.
“I feel our team has done a good job living up to expectations thus far this season,” said Duncan. “We still have a lot of big races in the future and we’re excited to see what we can continue to do as a team.”
