UMD Women Race to the Podium

(Left to Right) Lauren Bruha, Kara Thul, Emily Muellner, Ellie Stepaniak, Emi Trost, Kaelyn Williams, Natalie Stauber, McKenzie Holt, Natalie Kessler, Brittany Platt, Amber Seidenkranz, Erica Seidenkranz, Breanna Colbenson, Sam Rivard, Caitlin Richard, Allie Rudin, Hannah Olson, Kat Ocariz and (below)Head Coach Joanna Warmington.
Missing: Hannah Jocelyn. Photo Courtesy of UMD

University of Minnesota Duluth's women's cross country and track coach Joanna Warmington had just seen her team finish third in the NCAA DII XC Championships.  They missed jumping to second by a mere four points. It was the best finish ever for a UMD women's team.  Time to celebrate, right?  Not quite.

While the XC team was piling up points at the DII Nationals, indoor season was just starting back in Minnesota.  In the time following their XC triumph, the team did have a post race roll in the mud.  They were happy that they'd placed third, but they also knew that second place was not that far away.  All but one of this year's team, the team's final scorer Alex Rudin, will graduate.

So, Warmington spent much of the post meet, pre Christmas vacation time having one-on-one sit downs with "about 60 athletes," giving them training schedules for the time away from school. indoor season was underway and XC was in the review mirror, but what a lovely sight it was.

This year's NCAA DII XC schedule had two week breaks between both Conference and Regionals.  The challenge was getting and keeping them sharp for the last month of the season.  It didn't help that about a week of five degree weather and ice, not that unusual in Duluth, had everyone retreating indoors with workouts to help turnover and speed, but being careful not get injured. "It was a long season," said Warmington, so the key objective over the last month of the season was to keep everyone healthy.

Being on the podium was this year's goal.  Next year Grand Valley State graduates all but two of their team members, but those two finished first and second overall and a lot can happen in a year.  "We'll miss Alex," said Warmington.  Rudin provided leadership from the pack on a team with a lot of talent.  Sam Rivard led the team all year, but had a hard time in the mud at Nationals, Warmington said.

The rest of the team were better "mudders."  Freshman Emi Trost, sophomore Breanna Colbenson, junior Hannah Olson, and Rudin had the strength to handle the challenging footing, while Rivard is more speed oriented as evidenced last year when she won the 1600 and was third in the 3,000 at DII Indoor Nationals.  In outdoor track, she doubled again placing second in the 5,000 and seventh in the 10K.

Trost, said Warmington, is convinced she is not as suited for the longer distances, but placed only four seconds and four places behind Rivard at NCAA's.  "She doesn't like the long stuff," said Warmington, but Warmington wonders if Trost might be better at a longer distance and while Trost will run primarily 800 and 1500, Warrington wants her to try the 3,000 as well.

Trost won the MSHSL 800 in 2013 for her first State title, then followed that up with a cross country win.  In her last track season for Cannon Falls, Trost suffered her first major injury and had limited training during her senior year in track but still won the 3200 title. All she's lacking at this point is confidence, said Warmington.

At DII XC Nationals Colbenson, Olson, and Rudin provided the key points in the key positions to allow UMD to rise from a tenth place finish a year ago to the podium.

Because they were such a young team Warmington had them race a lot, often training through events.  They captured their first major goal during a hard training week when they won the Griak in the Women's Maroon DII race in September.  The racing, Warmington believes, is the best way to learn how to race.  "I learned a lot from the girls," said Warmington of the the info she gathered as they raced their way through the season.

The UMD lead pack at Oshkosh. Colbenson(802), Rivard(810), and
Trost(81). Photo courtesy of UMD 

The team never finished below third.  They "came together as a team" at Oshkosh, said Warmington.  The Wisconsin competition was their second meeting in two weeks against Grand Valley State and UMD closed the gap on the number one ranked team in DII, placing second.  Prior to that at the Notre Dame Invitational the Bulldogs tested themselves against DI, DII, and DII teams and finished third behind Grand Valley State and DI Duquesne.  The only real sub par meet of the season was the NSIC Conference Championship where they tied for first on points with Augustana, but came in second in the tiebreaker.

If your only down meet was a tie for first,  that gives a pretty good  indicator of how successful 2014 was for UMD's cross country women.