Loves Park, Ill. -- The Grinnell College men extended its Midwest Conference title streak to 13 en route to capturing its 25th MWC Championship in program history. The Pioneers’ 22 points was well below that of runner-up Ripon College’s 75. The Red Hawks second-place finish is the best finish for the men in school history.
Monmouth College came in third with 80 points, just ahead of fourth-place St. Norbert College (92 points). Be¬loit College (168 points) rounded out the top five, edging Lawrence University (169 points) by one point. Car¬roll University finished seventh, followed by Knox College, Illinois College and Lake Forest College in eighth, ninth and tenth-place, respectively.
Grinnell’s individuals continued their domination of the sport as the Pioneers took home the gold, silver and bronze medals. Dan Krauss won the individual title in a time of 26:42.13, followed by teammates Noah DeLong (27:03.65) and Alex Reich (27:10.92) in second and third, respectively. Ripon’s Jason Smith was fourth and Grinnell’s David Montgomery rounded out the top five.
St. Norbert College’s senior Jon O’Brien finished his career with sixth-place honors, while another Red Hawk, Ben Worcester was seventh. Monmouth College’s Geoff Bird finished eighth, Beloit College’s Eric Koenig was ninth and the Fighting Scots took home another medal in Jon Welty’s tenth place finish.
Grinnell’s Will Freeman and Ripon’s Bob Duley were name the 2009 Co-Coaches of the year.
The Grinnell College women ran their way back to the top of the MWC, winning the 2009 MWC Cross Country Championships with 22 points, well ahead of runner-up Carroll University (71 points). This marks the Pioneers 16th championship title in program history and first since 2007, after the team had a four league title streak halted a year ago. The 6K race was was held at Rock Cut State Park in Loves Park, Il¬linois.
2008 champion Monmouth College (73 points) was only two points shy of a second-place finish and edged St. Norbert College (74 points) for third. Beloit College rounded out the top five after scoring 124 points. Ripon College came in sixth followed by Lawrence in seventh-place, Lake Forest in eighth and Illinois College and Knox College in ninth and tenth, respectively.
Carroll University’s Megan O’Grady was in a league of her of her own crossing the line in 22:26.29 to take home the individual title. Despite frigid temperatures and cold, strong winds, O’Grady finished almost one minute before runner-up and last year’s individual champion Jenny Scherer of St. Norbert. The Green Knights’ senior All-American completed the 6K course in 23:22.37, topping Monmouth College’s Mary Kate Beyer (23:28.69), who finished third. Her Fighting Scots teammate Katie Staab finished in fourth-place followed by first-year Amanda Whipple of St. Norbert in fifth.
Grinnell College’s Leah Russell, Hannah Colter and Maja Gamble crossed the line in sixth, seventh and eighth-place, respectively, while Ripon’s Jessica Davey (ninth) and Michelle Matter (tenth) rounded out the top ten. The top twenty individual finishers earned all-conference recognition.
Grinnell’s Head Coach Evelyn Freeman was named the 2009 Coach of the Year.