Sept. 27, 2008
Roy Griak Results (pdf): Men | Women
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – The Arizona State University cross country team made its annual trek to Minnesota on Saturday afternoon to compete in the 23rd Roy Griak Invitational and will return home with another solid performance by the women that included another individual victory. In the team race, the No. 5 women placed second overall for the third year in a row while the men placed 10th overall in their division.
Kari Hardt became the 19th different Sun Devil to win a race in program history and only the second to capture the Griak title (Amy Hastings, 2005) as she covered the 6,000m course in 21:19. The victory is the first of her collegiate career, making her the second Sun Devil to accomplish that feat in the past two meets as Ali Kielty won her first race last week at the Dave Murray Invitational in Tucson.
The women, ranked fifth in the national polls, scored 46 points to finish behind host and ninth-ranked Minnesota, who defended their title with 31 points. The runner-up finish for the women gives ASU a second-place trophy in each of the last three Griak meets as well as eight Top 2 finishes in the last eight years. New Mexico (89), No. 20 Duke (105) and Portland (157) rounded out the Top 5.
With a young group of runners that included three freshmen and two sophomores, the Sun Devil men scored 268 points to finish 10th overall. Adams State, the No. 2 team in Division II, won the race with 75 points and was followed in the Top 5 by No. 29 Iowa State (89), No. 30 BYU (91), No. 9 Minnesota (107) and No. 25 Auburn (135).
In the women’s race, Hardt took the overall title by seven seconds and led an ASU finish that included three Top 6 placements and all five scoring runners in the Top 20. Jenna Kingma was third overall in 21:30 while Kielty was sixth in 21:38. Haley Paul (17th in 21:53) and Angela Spadafino (21:59) rounded out the scoring places for the Sun Devils while true freshmen Lindsay Prescott (26th in 22:06) and Kauren Tarver (31st in 22:21) rounded out the Sun Devils in the race.
Sophomore Patrick Milloy led the way for the men as he finished 30th overall in 25:08 while fellow classmate Noah Shannon, the team’s top finisher in the first two races of the season, was close behind in 34th at 25:12. Santos Castro (56th in 25:28), rookie Dylan Hatcher (71st in 25:44) and David Mehlhorn (77th in 25:48) rounded out the Top 5 scoring places while freshmen Thomas Petersen (80th in 25:50) and Daniel Lovell (93rd in 25:59) also competed for the team.
Next weekend, the Sun Devils will remain home as they are set to play host to the 23rd Joe Uff/ASU Invitational on Friday, October 3. The meet, which will be held at Kiwanis Park in Tempe, will feature a men’s 8,000m run at 5 p.m. with the women’s 5,000m run starting at 5:30 p.m.