Titans' Carpenter earns bid to nationals
The men’s and women’s UW Oshkosh cross country teams placed seventh at the NCAA Division III Midwest Regional on Nov. 15.
Freshman Hannah Kuenzi was the top finisher for the women’s team, placing 34th in 22 minutes and 21 seconds.
Women’s head coach Drew Ludtke said the team’s performance at the meet was average.
“We had a sickness on the team, and a couple of performances that weren’t very good,” Ludtke said. “So we, as a team, didn’t do our best and that’s a little disappointing.”
Sophomore Leah Rendflesh said the goal going into the regional meet was to qualify for nationals, and she was disappointed that it didn’t happen.
“We had a lot of lifetime personal bests so that’s one positive thing about the race,” Rendflesh said. “I’m very happy with the way the season went overall. We made major improvements from last year and I think that’ll continue.”
Ludtke said although he was disappointed in the way the women performed at the regional he was proud of his team overall.
“Were a better team than we were a year ago,” Ludtke said. “I’m proud of how the girls performed. They had a good chance to make nationals.”
Reflecting on the season, Ludtke said an influx of youth helped the team but resulted in issues of inexperience.
“We had 16 new girls on the team this year,” Ludtke said. “They had to learn to do the little things all the time, not just every so often, in order to be successful. Hannah had a great season along with Cheyenne and Isabella. They were all in the top seven at the end of the year so we were pretty happy with them.”
Junior Jordan Carpenter led the men’s team, placing fifth in 24:13 and earned an individual bid to the NCAA Division III Championship.
Additional scores for the Titans were sophomores Joe Zack (32nd, 25:06) and Charlend Howard (36th, 25:10), junior Roberto Lara (51st, 25:27) and senior Mike Foust (60th, 25:35).
Men’s head coach Eamon McKenna said he was pleased with the progress of the season but frustrated with the NCAA selection committee.
“We beat three teams head-to-head that made it into the national meet as at large bids, two of which we beat by over 100 points, so that was the most frustrating thing,” McKenna said. “We know we earned it, we didn’t have a single bad race.”
McKenna said Carpenter’s primary goal going into the national meet is to place in the top 35, which would earn him All-American honors.
“He has the talent to place top 20,” McKenna said.
Carpenter will race as UW Oshkosh’s lone competitor at the NCAA Division III National Championship in Mason, Ohio on Nov. 22.