The University of Dallas men and women’s Cross Country teams took on the UT-Dallas Invite in Richardson, TX, for their first 5k race of the new season on Saturday, Sept. 14.
The Austin College ‘Roos took first place in the men’s competition, and the Hardin-Simmons Cowboys in the women’s. Our Crusaders men’s team placed sixth, and the women’s team placed fourth overall.
“Our women’s team could have placed third,” said the team’s new head coach Nick Schneigert. The team faced challenges of injury, heat, uneven footwork, and misguided directions on the course–which unfortunately slowed down some runners’ times. In the face of these challenges, though, Schneigert said that he is proud of his runners and that “overall, we did very well.”
The Crusaders celebrated the first-place victory of sophomore Anna Wilgenbusch.
“We had a solid group of Crusader fans,” said Wilgenbusch, “and I feed off the energy of my team and our supporters.” The excited fans could be heard cheering and laughing as they watched her chase the cart, leaving the rest of the pack in her dust. She completed the race with a time of 18:55–almost an entire minute ahead of the 2nd place finisher.
“It was difficult to pace my race with such a dispersed field, but I was very happy with my performance and I felt strong,” said Wilgenbusch. “And I know each of my teammates gave the race 100%.”
Schneigert said he admires not only the great talent of each of his runners, but also their great character and leadership, and he looks forward to building the team as the season moves forward.
“It was hard to see what the team was capable of doing,” said Schneigert, after only one full week as head coach. “But after this meet, I am now able to evaluate how to improve the team for the season going forward and for the upcoming years.”
The team travels to Bethel College in Newton, KS, next week to compete in the Muthama-Rogers XC 5k Invite.
