DePaul University Athletics
Cross Country Continues to Climb
9/13/2008 12:00:00 AM | CROSS COUNTRY
CHICAGO Stacy Schmitz and Ryan Solomon paced the DePaul women’s and men’s cross country teams on Friday at the AU Spartan Classic. Official results were released on Saturday. Running in the Oakhurst Forrest Preserve, the women finished second in the team standings, and the men placed fifth.
The Blue Demons were led for the second week in a row by Stacy Schmitz. Last week at the Ted Hedstrand Invitational, Schmitz placed 12th in the 5.29K with a time of 21:44. This week she lowered her average mile time by one second and finished 10th on the 6K course. She clocked in with a time of 24:37.
Erin Lakie and Kim Boisvert finished just behind Schmitz with 13th and 14th place times of 24:45 and 24:47 respectively. Finishing 19th was Kelsey Dolan, with a time of 24:55. Rounding out the top-five Blue Demon finishers was Cari Krikorian, who recorded a time of 25:21 to place 28th.
Solomon paced the DePaul men for the first time this season with an 11th place finish. His time of 27:05 is a season best in the 8K race. In addition, the pace of 5:26.9 per mile was his fastest of the year.
Brian Begalke was the second Blue Demon to cross the line with a time of 27:32. Finishing 29th was Dan Steinfels in a time of 28:01. Sebastian Gosztyla and Michael Fry closed out DePaul’s top-five finishers with times of 28:19 and 29:08.
The Blue Demon women combined for a score of 84 to place second in a field of 11 squads. Carthage College topped the women’s standing with a score of 40. The men recorded a score of 130 to finish 5th out of 14 teams. Claiming the men’s title was Wheaton College with a team score of 25.
DePaul returns to action on Friday, September 19 at the National Catholic Championships in Notre Dame, Indiana. Races begin at 2:30 p.m. (CST)