[Results]

[Championship Page]

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Grinnell men and Monmouth women captured team championships at the 2012 Midwest Conference Cross Country Championships that were held at Coburn Park in Green Bay Wis. Along with the team champions being crowned Grinnell teammates Sarah Burnell and Frank Canady were individual champions on the women’s and men’s sides, respectively.

Burnell covered the 6k course in a time of 22:04.50 which was over 20 seconds faster than runner-up Megan O’Grady from Carroll who finished with a time of 22:25.20. Burnell is the first Grinnell individual champion on the women’s side since 2007 when Sarah Spencer took home gold. Monmouth’s Tori Beaty was in third place with a time of 22:36.70 followed by Stephanie Rouse (Grinnell, 22:42.20) and Rachel Bowden (Monmouth, 22:47.80).

Canady continued the trend of individual champions for Grinnell as he was the fifth individual champion in the last seven years with a time 25:21.90 on the 8k course. Canady just beat out a pair of Monmouth runners in Jake Barr (25:25.20) and Matt Gatlin (25:31.50) who finished in second and third. Erik Figge (Grinnell, 25:46.50) and Sean Choate (Knox, 25:47.70) rounded out the top-5 on the men’s side.

As a team Monmouth won its first women’s championship since the 2008 season and was its second overall championship with 51 points which just edged out runner-up St. Norbert with 55 points. Grinnell (69 points), Cornell (102) and Ripon (139) rounded out the top-5. Carroll finished in sixth with 172 points which was ahead of Beloit and Lawrence who finished with 211 and 222 points, respectively. Knox (245), Illinois Col. (258) and Lake Forest (297) rounded out the 11 team field.

Grinnell captured its 15th men’s championship in the last 16 years and 28th overall with a dominant performance. The Pioneers had four runners finish in the top-10 and six runners sin the top-12 en route to the championship performance that tallied only 33 points. 2011 champion Lawrence finished in second place with 93 points and they finished only 13 points ahead of St. Norbert who was the third place finisher. Monmouth (109), Carroll (122) and Knox (136) finishing in fourth through sixth place with Cornell finishing in seventh place with 150 points in its first MWC Championship appearance since 1997. Lake Forest (258) just edged out Beloit (263) for eighth place with Illinois Col. (269) and Ripon (280) rounding out the championship field.

Grinnell men’s Head Coach Will Freeman was named Men’s Coach of the Year while Monmouth’s Roger Haynes was named the Women’s Coach of the Year. Both honors were voted on by MWC Cross Country coaches.