The Arizona women’s cross-country team made its mark at the Wisconsin adidas Invitational in Madison, Wisc. on Friday by placing in the top 10 with a third-place finish out of 42 teams. For the men, freshman Lawi Lalang won the 8,000-meter men’s race for the men’s team that placed 36th overall.

Sophomore Elvin Kibet was the first Wildcat to cross the finish line for the women’s team, placing 12th against another 300 runners.

She was followed by the UA’s second runner, junior Jen Bergman, who finished 15th.

Freshman Haley Stenquist was Arizona’s third finisher at 53rd. Junior Elizabeth Apgarcame in 73rd place and sophomore Amanda Russell in 77th.

“This race was really different from any other race I’ve ran,” Kibet said. “I was so calm and so relaxed and then I realized this is a big race and I should be a little nervous. I wasn’t feeling well last week but coaches supported me and I pushed through.”

The two teams to finish ahead of the Wildcats were No. 24 Washington, who came in first place, followed by unranked Vanderbilt.

“We did really well, everyone worked hard. I couldn’t believe we won third place,” Kibet said.

On the men’s side, sophomore Patrick Zacharias was Arizona’s second runner to cross the finish line at 141st place.

Freshman Thomas Valente finished 240th, freshman Kenji Bierig was 251st, and redshirt freshman Sam Macaluso finished in 261st place.
Lalang beat the second-place runner, North Carolina State’s Ryan Hill, by 15 seconds with a time of 23:10.8. It was Lalang’s third straight win.

“After the first mile I was moving around a lot but after that, there was no one really around me,” Lalang said. “It felt nice to win again but it is time to prepare for the next race.”