Women’s Cross Country Wins the Conference Title by Three Points, Its First Since 2008

The Ironclad women won the conference cross-country championship on Saturday at Tamarack State, scoring 52 points to Eau Pleine’s 55. It is the program’s first conference title since 2008, and it was decided 300 meters from the finish.

First-year Signe Arneson won the 6K individual race in 21:52.6. She went to the front on the second climb and won by 11 seconds in her first conference meet. Porter’s next three runners came in 9th, 12th and 14th. With a kilometer left, the team’s fifth scorer was sitting about 25th, and by the coaches’ running math the Loggers were ahead.

That fifth runner was sophomore Nora Pfeifer. She passed two Eau Pleine runners on the final straight and finished 16th. Under cross-country scoring, a team’s top five places are added together and the lowest total wins, so those two places made a four-point swing.

“I don’t think Nora knew what was riding on it. I did. I may have yelled something I’ll be apologizing to the Tamarack State grounds crew for.”

— Pete Odegaard, head cross country coach

Pfeifer, a nursing major from Cedar Bluff, said she was “mostly trying not to get passed” and found out the team had won from a teammate who was crying. The men’s team finished fifth, led by a junior in 18th, and said afterward that it had spent the cool-down jog doing scoring math on its fingers for the women.

The women advance to the regional championship on November 16, where the top two teams qualify for nationals. The team page has the roster and schedule. The home course behind Millwright Stadium is open to the public on non-meet days, and the program’s results go into the department’s record books at the end of each season.

Contact: Office of University Communications, news@uwporterfalls.edu