Team Results

Individual Results

The UW-Parkside women's cross country team got its season off to a great start in winning the 2011 UW-Parkside Midwest Open. The Rangers posted a team score of 37 finishing well ahead of the second place squad from UW-Milwaukee. It is just the second time (2006) that the Rangers have won the event. Hope Christie won the individual title for the Rangers with a time of 17:54 becoming just the third Parkside runner in school history to claim the women's race.

“It was a great opener for us,” said head coach Micah VanDenend. “We had two goals coming in; to have the individual winner and to win on the team side. We felt like anything else we got out of the rest of the group was going to be a great start. We're a young team and we've got a lot of new runners in the group. Whatever they started at was going to be good feedback and now we'll start chipping away and improving as we go forward.”

Christie finished well out in front of the rest of the pack as she grabbed a nearly ten second lead after the opening mile. She finished 24 seconds ahead of Christy Cazzola from UW-Oshkosh and joined Jessica Monson and Naomi Fulton as the only Parkside women to ever win the event.

“It's tough when you're doing the pace work by yourself,” said VanDenend about Christie's performance. “We know she's in great shape and I think if she's in a race with people pushing her she can do a whole lot more. She's going to be tough when it matters in the end and certainly be in contention to win a conference title and be at the national championships and hopefully be an All-American this year.”

The Rangers got a boost from freshman Markelle Turk who finished in fourth place. The newcomer from Hampshire, Ill. posted a time of 19:02 in her first collegiate event.

“That was probably the race of the day for us on the women's side,” said VanDenend. “For a freshman to come in and run like that on a hot day on our tough, hilly course is phenomenal. She's going to be a great addition for us and help us reach some of our big goals we have on the team side this year.”

The Rangers will next be in action on September 24^th when they travel to St. Paul, Minn., for the Roy Griak Invitational hosted by the University of Minnesota.