UW Oshkosh sophomore Gwen Feitl claimed first place with a time of 24:34.18 in the 6,000-meter run to help the women’s cross-country team win the three-team Ripon College Red Hawk Open on Nov. 2.
Feitl said she claimed the top spot in the race because she was able to focus on herself and not the other runners.
“It was a fairly small field of racers so I just worked on relaxing, running my own race and trying not to worry about the other team,” she said. “We had a really good squad of women running who are always incredibly encouraging, which is super helpful. I just worked on staying engaged and locked into the pace car ahead of me and just had a good time.”
The Titans earned a first-place finish in the team event with 23 points, followed by UW-Stevens Point in second with 51 points and Ripon in third with 59 points.
Feitl said she was thrilled to take first place at the Red Hawk Invitational.
“Every season has its ups and downs,” Feitl said. “Our team did really well overall at the conference meet the previous weekend so I was just riding off their success. It’s nice to have added to the team’s success and, hopefully, feed their confidence heading into the postseason.”
In the men’s race, UWO finished in third place with 66 points while UW-Stevens Point claimed the top spot with 17 points and Ripon finished second with 51 points.
Behind Feitl was UWO junior Liv Schwarm, who finished second in the women’s 6000-meter race with a career-best time of 25:19.21. Three more Titans claimed spots in the top 10, with Ella Galaszewski finishing fifth with a career-best time of 25:50.67, Kate Haffner finishing sixth with at a season-best time of 25:52.75 and Dana Valdez-Berber finishing ninth with a time of 26:00.90.
On the men’s side, UWO was led by freshman Brady Lewis who paced the Titans with a sixth-place finish in 27:36.95. Nate Gindt finished in 11th-place with a time of 28:10.64 while fellow freshmen Evan Peterson finished in 12th-place with a time of 28:13.21 and Alex Bernhardt took 18th place with a time of 29:29.61.
UWSP’s Zach Brandenburg captured the 8000-meter men’s individual title with a 26:50.29 finish.
The Titans will travel to Whitetail Golf Course in Colfax to take part in the NCAA Division III Regional Championship on Nov. 11 with the men’s race starting at 11 a.m. followed by the women’s race at noon.
Feitl said the team is looking forward to the upcoming D-III regionals.
“We are feeling pretty confident, and we, of course, have high hopes for what we can do, which is always exciting,” she said. “We already have so many months of training under our belts and we are ready to use all of that to execute an awesome and fun race against some other really good regional teams.”
