Success at Seminole Valley Stampede for Cross Country Teams

The Viterbo men’s and women’s cross country teams traveled to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to compete in the Seminole Valley Stampede on Saturday, October 20,, 2018, at Noelridge Park. The Seminole Valley Stampede is unique because it is exclusively an NAIA meet held two weeks before the conference championship, leading it to be a very fast and competitive field. According to head cross-country coach Don Fritsch, this year the course conditions were soft and sloppy in many places because of heavy rains, and runners were slowed by sustained 30 mph winds with gusts of up to 50 mph. Despite these harsh weather conditions, the men’s and women’s cross-country teams both managed to persevere.

Overall, the women’s team posted seven new lifetime personal best times and two runners posted season’s best times over the 5,000-meter course. Also, in the men’s race, they managed to post one of the season’s best times and two lifetime personal best times. The men’s team finished 18th out of 23 teams. They were the third best among the four conference schools, defeating Waldorf University and losing to Dakota State and Valley City State.

Individually, for the men’s team, senior V-Hawk Jorge Pichardo (Harvard, Ill.) led the men’s team with a 31st place finish and an 8,000-meter course (eight-kilometer) time of 26:56.7. Also, senior David Alvarado (Montclair, Calif.) finished 84th individually with a time of 28:03.9. Two freshman William Spitzmueller (Roberts, Wis.) and Andy Hansen both improved their general average race times at the meet.

For the women’s team, seven V-Hawks finished with personal-best times as Viterbo finished 26th of 27 teams. The race was five kilometers in length. Freshman Lauren Herzog (Gillett, Wis.) led the team with a time just above 21 minutes. She finished 97th individually and cut her personal-best by 47 seconds with a 21:02.4 5km time. Senior Allison Stoeffler (La Crescent, Minn.) followed with a time of 22:58.7. She finished 207th after cutting her personal-best time by a minute and 15 seconds. Freshman Lindsay Hankins (Caledonia, Minn.) dropped her career-best 5 km time by three minutes and 25 seconds.