Pioneers Look to Make it Three Straight MWC Titles

Trying to make it three straight Midwest Conference Team Championships this weekend, the Grinnell College women's cross country team is staying focused and is eager to compete. Head Coach Evelyn Freeman says she isn't worried about the squad being too overconfident.

"Although the team wants to really do well, they're more appreciative of the camaraderie of each other," Freeman said. "We really try and keep our program in balance and address the training and camaraderie."

The Pioneers, who are currently ranked 15th by the NCAA, have come together and have been dominating throughout the entire season. The team got its momentum going by placing second at the Bob Timmons Invite back in September. It nearly pulled off the meet, which consisted of primarily Division I schools, but fell just short as the University of Kansas took the meet by 14 points over the Pioneers.

The Pioneers would respond by winning the Les Duke Invitational the following week, holding off an always powerful Wartburg College team by 23 points. Grinnell then placed fourth out of 33 teams at the Brissman-Lundeed Invite hosted by Augustana College before another impressive showing as it won the Pre-regional meet on October 7th.

The team closed out the regular season portion of its competition by defeating Knox College in a dual-meet race two weeks ago.

Sarah Spencer '08 has won three meets this season for the Pioneers. She also captured a new school record time of 21:48 which she set at the Brissman-Lundeed Invite on September 22nd. Allison Louthan '08 has the second fastest 6K time for Grinnell this season (22:02) which was also set at the Brissman-Lundeed Invite. Sara Brady '07 (22:40) and Kaitlyn Ryan '07 (23:17) have the third and fourth best times, while Meredith Groves '08 (23:32) rounds out the top five.