The UW-Parkside women's cross country team took part in a doubleheader of sorts on Saturday, running at Augustana and Lake Forest.

Jessica Monson raced away from at the Augustana College Brissman/Lundeen Invitational on Saturday evening to pace the UW-Parkside women's cross country team to a fourth place finish in the event.
 
Monson took charge of the race at around the 2500m, paced the 3000m split in 10:41 and the covered the second lap of the course in 10:38 to finish with a 48-second win over runner-up Taryn Surtes of Washington (MO) with a final time of 21:21.6. Monson was the defending champion in the meet with a win last fall at the event held on Credit Island.  This year's event was held at Saukie Golf Course due to the flooding in June along the Mississippi River. A total of 308 runners finished the event held with temperatures in the 80s.
 
The UW-P team finished fourth with 133 points. Washington (MO) won the event with 93 points, with Tuman State (MO) 112 and St. Xavier 131 in second and third respectively.
 
Heidi Ertl finished 15th in collegiate scoring with a time of 23:22. She was followed by teammates Angie Adams (30th, 23:55), Hope Christie (32nd, 23:56), and Jennie Kindt (56th, 24:34) to round out the yop five scorers for the team. Kim Degener (63rd, 24:41) and Whitney Olson (69th, 24:47) finished off the scoring for the squad.
 
Coach Mike De Witt commented on the performance: "The team did a very good job of controlling their early efforts in this meet. When it is a hot day for cross country, it is important to be able to race the second half, rather than survive. We moved up very well in the team standings over the final 3000m and had well over 200 points at the halfway mark. Jessica Monson raced strong and is running well. She is leading a young team right now with Heidi Ertl being a junior and next five runners are all sophomores."
 

At Lake Forest

Heidi Andersen led a second group of UW-P women to a third place finish out of 10 teams at the Lake Forest College "Forester" Invitational held Saturday morning at the Half Day Forest Preserve.
 
Andersen was the ninth place collegiate finisher when she covered the 5045m course in a time of 19:48. She was followed to the line by Jessica Enderby, who finished 12th with a time of 19:55. Amber McClure was 19th, in 20:15.  Brittany Glassburn (27th, 20:56), Miranda Melville (39th, 21:19), and Le'erin Voss (46th, 21:37) also competed for the team. There were a total of 104 finishers.
 
Wheaton College won the event with 19 points, and the individual champion was Lisa Baumert of Wheaton, who was timed in 18:37. Illinois Tech was second with 55 points. The Rangers scored 79 points.
 
The UW-P women will be idle next weekend and will return to action at home on Oct 11th when they play host to the Lucian Rosa Parkside Invite, which will include two races for the women, a 4 km and a 5 km. That action will get underway at 10:30 AM.

For information on the Rosa Invite, click on: http://www.parksiderangers.com/sports/2008/9/10/MTRK_0910083333.aspx?path=wtrack