One minute is an eternity in cross country, a lesson the Northwestern women’s cross country team learned the hard way last Saturday at the six-kilometer Roy Griak Invitational at Minnesota.
Less than a minute — eight seconds, to be exact — is all that separated the 21st-place Wildcats from a top-20 finish. As a team, NU turned in a 1:56:53, just behind Southern Utah’s 1:56:45.
NU’s top-placing runner, freshman Marie Grabinski, ran a 22:19 to end up in 72nd place overall.
Following closely behind Grabinski were seniors Diana Hossfeld, who finished 86th with a 23:00, and Lesley Meade, whose time of 23:13 just barely kept her out of the top 100.
“I did OK, but I wanted to do a lot better,” said Meade, who placed 102nd. “I think the whole team wanted to do better.”
The Wildcats placed 21st in a field of 29 teams and 300 runners.
