Different meet, same result.
The UA men’s and women’s cross-country teams went to the University of Minnesota to compete in the Roy Griak Invitational this weekend. The women were able to win the team competition and Stephen Sambu was able to take the individual competition for the men.
“”I guess it’s a great weekend to be a Wildcat,”” head coach James Li said. “”Football team coming back to win and us going to the Roy Griak Invitational, it’s really one of the bigger cross-country meets in the country and we won.””
It was the first time that the women’s team had won at the invitational. There was stiff competition at the meet, most notably No. 7Duke University.
Li stressed that a win at the Griak Invitational is very significant because of how big and popular it has become over the past few years.
Jennifer Bergman led the way for the Wildcats, placing 11th in the 6,000-meter race. Hot on Bergman’s trail was Hannah Moen, who finished two seconds after Bergman. Moen placed first at the Dave Murray Invitational in Tucson last weekend.
“”It was really good, all the girls we were talking to each other the whole way,”” Bergman said. “”Every time I see my teammates during a race they talk to me and I talk to them, it helps a lot.””
The Wildcats had four runners place in the top 15, five seconds apart from each other. After Bergman and Moen, freshman phenom Elvin Kibet took 14th and sophomore Megan Meyer rounded out the top 15.
“”Our one through four had a five second spread this week,”” assistant coach Erin Dawson said. “”I have never seen a spread like that on a one through four.””
On the men’s side, Sambu dominated as usual and took first place.
“”Stephen definitely showed a lot of promise,”” Li said. “”That guy is good. Winning and winning by that much, that was a very good time.””
After Sambu, there was a two minute and 15 second drop off until the next UA runner. Li said the rest of the team definitely needs to step up, and he wants them to cut at least a minute off of their times to help Stephen.
“”It’s an early meet, we still have a long season to go,”” Dawson said. “”We celebrated and now we are going to back on track because we still have a lot more to go.””
