City of Ironwood's Daily News Source

Soggy XC Season Opener

HOUGHTON - The 2010/2011 Cross Country Track Season opened Friday in Houghton. Five teams competed in the men’s and woman’s divisions. Kari Strand pictured above, ran as the sole Gogebic runner in the woman’s division. GCC did not receive a team score in the woman’s division as there weren’t enough runners to count for a team score.

The weather was a factor in Friday’s race. It was cold, wet and extremely windy. The runners finishing the race not only climbed to the finish line but also had strong side and head winds. The winds were strong enough to have downed several trees in the area. In a nutshell the weather was awful. Coincidently, last year's opener had similar weather, but not as severe as this year's weather.

On the positive side, there were a lot of good runners, and our colleges and universities in the Western U.P. were all represented. Joining the U.P. teams for the race were men and women teams from Wartburg College. Wartburg College is the college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and is located in Waverly Iowa. Wartburg XC teams had been in Houghton for a XC Camp and were able to race in this open event. The Wartburg runners that we met were really polite and friendly and they were excited about being here for the race.

Slide Show

In the men’s completion, four teams competed; Michigan Tech, Wartburg, Northern, and Finlandia.

Tech runner, Brian Stetter won the men’s competition, repeating last year’s opener.

The winning time for the Tech Senior was 0:16:41.7 Jon Stover running with the Wartburg team placed second with a time of 0:16:43.2, he was followed by teammate Grand Moser, who finished third.

pictured above - Winner Brian Stetter (right) and Jon Stover (right) 2nd place finisher.

Men's Division Top Ten Finishers
1 224 Stetter Brian MTU 1 M Varsity 0:16:41.7
2 269 Stover Jon Wartburg 1 M Varsity 0:16:43.2
3 263 Moser Grand Wartburg 2 M Varsity 0:16:52.4
4 208 Dugan Matt MTU 2 M Varsity 0:16:57.0
5 275 Warehime Shane Wartburg 3 M Varsity 0:17:07.9
6 215 Kilpela Jon MTU 3 M Varsity 0:17:08.1
236 Singlton Colin Unattached M Open 0:17:11.3
7 260 Lee Nick Wartburg 4 M Varsity 0:17:11.8
8 201 Anderson Dylan MTU 4 M Varsity 0:17:12.3
9 226 Wimmer Nick MTU 5 M Varsity 0:17:12.4
10 202 Bedbury Nick MTU 6 M Varsity 0:17:18.6

above - Placing third Jon Stover

The Gogebic Men's finishers were:

Beckman Dominic Gogebic 1 M Varsity 0:18:56.5
Goings Ryan Gogebic 2 M Varsity 0:19:12.6
Weber Kyle Gogebic 3 M Varsity 0:19:23.0
Pallin Kyle Gogebic 4 M Varsity 0:19:44.1
Scherer Lucas Gogebic 5 M Varsity 0:19:54.7
Gering Mike Gogebic 6 M Varsity 0:22:29.1

above - Dominic Beckman first GCC runner to cross finish line.

The five Finlandia runners in the men's division finished as follows:

Monticello Eric Finlandia 1 M Varsity 0:19:50.4
Millman John Finlandia 2 M Varsity 0:20:20.2
Roscoe Carl Finlandia 3 M Varsity 0:21:29.7
Manderfield Jon Finlandia 4 M Varsity 0:22:11.4
Cayce Justin Finlandia 5 M Varsity 0:23:29.1

above Eric Monticello first of Finlandia runners to cross the finish line.

The woman’s side the story was fairly much the same. MTU runner, Deedra Irwin won the event with a time of 0:19:13.0. Wartburg runner, Lori Tlach placed second. Her time was 0:19:51.4. Finishing third was MTU runner, Jill smith, who finished with a time of 0:19:55.7

Deedra Irwin pictured above finishes first in the woman's division, 40 seconds quicker than the second place finisher.

The woman’s top ten finishers were:

1 Irwin Deedra MTU 0:19:13.0 0:19:13.0
2 Tlach Lori Wartburg 0:19:51.4 0:19:51.4
3 Smith Jill MTU 0:19:55.7 0:19:55.7
4 Schulz Kristen NMU 0:19:57.5 0:19:57.5
5 Eimers Emily Wartburg 0:20:02.9 0:20:02.9
6 Yovetich Marissa MTU 0:20:18.2 0:20:18.2
7 Springer-Wilson Alison MTU 0:20:20.1 0:20:20.1
8 Halonen Amanda MTU 0:20:20.2 0:20:20.2
9 Dye Mandy NMU 0:20:22.3 0:20:22.3
10Juntila Olivia NMU 0:20:24.2 0:20:24.2

above - Finlandia runners Kendra Benson and Michelle Wood

Six Finlandia runners finished in the Woman’s division:

Benson Kendra Finlandia 0:22:36.5 0:22:36.5
Wood Michelle Finlandia 0:22:38.5 0:22:38.5
Maat Jen Finlandia 0:23:37.3 0:23:37.3
Tellefson Sami Finlandia 0:24:01.4 0:24:01.4
Norz Kelsey Finlandia 0:25:12.8 0:25:12.8
Johnson Jenny Finlandia 0:25:25.1 0:25:25.1

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