2018 WIAC Cross Country Championships Results

Colfax, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse women's cross country team finished second at the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Championship (Presented by Culver's) Saturday afternoon at Whitetail Golf Course. The Eagles finished with 63 team points while UW-Eau Claire won the league title with 39. 

UW-Oshkosh placed third (110) followed by UW-Stout (117), UW-River Falls (121), UW-Stevens Point (129), UW-Platteville (139) and UW-Whitewater (201).

The Eagles' Hannah Beilke captured the individual title Saturday, completing the 6,000-meter course in 21:40.2. She is the seventh runner in school history to win the league title and first since Laura Mead in 2014. Mead also won the crown in 2013. Other individual winners for UWL included Gail Rusch (1979), Tori Neubauer (1982, 1983), Sheri Winter (1986), Jenny Fielder (1999) and Julia Rudd (2002, 2005). 

Beilke finished 19th at the 2017 WIAC Championships and 16th in 2015.  

UWL's Sadie Kroll placed third Saturday (22:03.3) with Ellie Miller 14th (22:59.3), Whitney Ebert 22nd (23:19.3), Kaylan Marshall 23rd (23:20.7), Andrea Brekken 24th (23:23.9) and Dakota Holzem 26th (23:26.7).  It marks the second straight year Kroll finished third at the league championships. She also finished second in 2016. Brekken recorded her third career top-24 finish Saturday ater placing 10th in 2016 and 18th in 2015. 

Other UWL finishers on Saturday included Claire Koenecke 31st (23:36.9), Emma Malooly 34th (23:46.4), Madeline Sweeney 37th (23:55.6), Valerie Jones 38th (23:58.3) and Anna Buchberger 39th (24:02.1).

A total of 89 runners completed the race.

"For the most part our women ran well today," said UWL's seventh-year head coach Derek Stanley. "We didn't have coverage in the critical scoring places which hurt us in our effort to be champions.  We certainly held up well against the conference but this performance is not indicative of how good we can be.  Hannah Beilke hammered the race and looked great all the way through and I'm so happy for her to be a individual champion.  Sadie Kroll also looked amazing running to third overall as she continues to get in better shape each week."

Stanley has led UWL to three WIAC Championships (2013, 2014, 2016) while finishing second on four occasions (2012, 2015, 2017, 2018).  A total of 41 All-WIAC cross country honors have now been earned under Stanley, including 17 first team selections and 12 second team choices.

The top-seven runners received All-WIAC first team recognition, while runners placing eight through 14 earned All-WIAC second team accolades.  Individuals finishing 15 through 20 claimed honorable mention laurels.

UWL returns to action Saturday, November 10 at the NCAA Division III Midwest Regional at Whitetail Golf Course.

"I am glad conference is the same place as regionals this year so we got to preview the regional course in a meet that meant something," said Stanley. "We are still in high volume and moderate intensity training and we showed some grit out there today.  The conditions were great for a meet today and I am a proud coach looking at our overall results. We not only came home with two individual champions (Tom Schultz won the men's title) but we also came home with two conference scholar-athlete awards (Kroll and Schultz) which demonstrates the academic quality of our students and institution."