As a runner, one of the things you fear the most is peaking too early at the end of a season. With continuously improving speed at their races this season, the men’s and women’s cross country teams may have worried about this. However, Saturday was proof that the teams have been right on schedule. With all top five of Michigan Tech’s men setting personal bests, in some cases by over a minute, the Huskies had never looked better racing.

Brian Stetter was just four places out of all-GLIAC recognition in 18th place with an 8k finish of 25:36. Tight performances by Stuart Kramer and Erik Mundahl in 26:08 and 26:09 were crucial in the final scoring.

“It was good. We all ran really strong, fast races. The vast majority of the team pred. It was just a shame that everyone else ran just as fast,” said junior Chris Schafer.

A familiar face in the scoring mix this season, Ian Connick did not disappoint with a time of 26:19. Just four places back from Connick, Schafer turned in another top five performance to match his third-place team finish at Northern Michigan in 26:31.

“The course was definitely very fast, very flat. There’s a big difference between this course and most of the ones in the UP,” said Schafer. Typically, Michigan Tech holds a greater advantage on the hilly terrain that is found in the UP, but the Lake Superior State course held no such hills. With six of the top seven Husky finishers track runners, the flatter terrain may have actually given them a greater advantage then they could have guessed.

“We’re expecting to do better at Regionals. We’re looking to beat up on Saginaw and Tiffin there,” said Schafer of the Cardinals that Michigan Tech was less than 20 points behind and the Dragons that they tied with. “The race couldn’t have gone any better for us. It was just a really good day for everybody else, too.”

The men’s team tied for sixth place with Tiffin at the Conference meet.

On the women’s side, Laura Kangas led with a 29th place finish in 23:46 on the 6k course. Christina Mishica and Jenna Klein were in the mix with 39th and 59th place finishes in 24:05 and 24:45. Sydney Bruestle, Lauren Rantala and Sarah Gray came flying through in 62nd, 63rd and 64th. Karen Jarvey was not far behind in 68th. While the Huskies had more depth, this would not improve their 10th place overall finish. Gray had a great race on the day with a personal best and really came through to push her teammates, as her times have continued to drop this season. It will be interesting to watch how she performs at the Regional meet.

Michigan Tech has two weeks until that Regional meet at Ferris State University on Nov. 8.