The UW Oshkosh men’s and women’s cross-country teams opened their seasons at the UW-Green Bay Phoenix Open Sept. 8 with a fourth place team finish with 109 total points within the 6,000-meter women’s race and a second-place team finish with 58 points in the 8,000-meter men’s race.

Many Titans started the year off strong, including a 29th place finish from sophomore Jamie Catania, a 17th place finish from junior Cyna Madigan, and a ninth place finish from junior Amelia Lehman who was the first Titan to cross the finish line in the 6,000-meter race. 

Coach Eamon McKenna said he was happy with how the runners performed in the first meet of the season.

“The women had a number of personal records from our returners, which is rare in the first meet of the year,” McKenna said. “Jamie Catania, Gwen Feitl, Olivia Schwarm, Julia Strasser, Paige Hagner and Kate Haffner all established new personal records.  We have a lot of room to improve and we will need to learn to collectively execute as a team better, but it was a good start.”

The men’s 8,000-meter race had some strong finishes as well, securing five runners in the top 20 finishers along with senior Joe Kehoe finishing second. In this race, Kehoe not only placed second but set a new career best for himself with a time of 25 minutes and 6.1 seconds. 

Kehoe said he was very happy about his performance in the first race of the season.

“To finish second in a field that strong with a PR time was an awesome start,” he said. “I felt like I raced with a lot of confidence which will be important to maintain moving forward.”

“The first race of the season is always about familiarizing ourselves with the discomforts of racing, so I didn’t have any specific expectations going in,” Kehoe said.

With the team having grown over the summer and a lot of good times to start the year, the team is optimistic about the prospects of this year and even though the season has just begun they have a clear goal in mind.

“For the rest of the season, I think the momentum will carry over,” Madigan said. “I hope our team does really well at Eau Claire Buegold invite. But the most important issue would be to have everyone fresh and ready to attack in the championship season at conference and regionals so that we can make it as a team to nationals.

Next up for the Titans is UW-Platteville Gender Equity Invitational held on Saturday Sept. 23 at the Cole Acres Golf Course in Cuba City.