The St. Thomas cross country teams showed its strength at the Division I level with the men placing second and women placing fourth in the Summit League Championships, ending the team’s first season in the league October 30 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Redshirt sophomore Zach Haire finished fourth of 62 runners leading the men’s team to a comfortable second-place finish scoring 46 points total, trailing behind South Dakota State University’s first place win with 17 points.
“Coming into the season I think it was a shock that we were right up amongst the best teams in the Summit League,” Haire said. “We knew it would take a heroic effort to win it, but we knew we had a good shot at second place.”
Haire led the pack clocking in at 24:48 and received First Team All-League honors. The men’s team had eight runners place in the top 22, which only included one senior.
The Tommies had success in previous meets this season including placing sixth out of 31 teams at the Bradley Pink Classic in Peoria, Illinois.
“Guys were on fire the entire season,” Haire said. “Everyone bought in and believed that we can compete amongst the best so I think that was the coolest thing to see.”
Redshirt sophomore Colton Halla, redshirt first-year Charles Caven and senior Biel Wiel took honors making Second Team All-League after placing in the top 10 at the championships.
Coach Pete Wareham said he didn’t know what to expect this season as it was a year of unfamiliarity.
“You got to be able to be comfortable being uncomfortable,” Wareham said. “And I think that’s how we started the season. That turned into confidence.”
On the women’s end, senior Olivia Moll placed fifth of 75 runners with first-year Molly Desotell close behind finishing in 11th. The Tommies took fourth place out of nine teams, pulling out a close score of 96-98 over the fifth placed University of North Dakota.
“I knew going into it that I wanted to be with a front pack but knew that I have to get a good start,” Moll said. “Eventually I kind of caught up to that pack and I put myself in a position to be in that top five.”
The women had five runners place in the top 35 with Moll’s time at 21:41 and Desotell at 22:05.
South Dakota State also won the women’s division scoring 55 points to take first over North Dakota State by a margin of one.
“We’ve had really strong teams in the past. But this year, I think there’s just another edge that we needed to have in order to compete with some of these teams,” Moll said. “I think we did a really good job of adapting and accepting the fact that we’re gonna compete against some really good teams.”
Women’s cross country coach Joe Sweeney announced his retirement earlier this season after 42 years of coaching at St. Thomas and said he could not be more satisfied. Like Sweeny, Moll has also ended her career as a Tommie with the “best cross country season I’ve ever had.”
“When you’re a senior it’s you’re running with extra superpowers,” Sweeney said. “And for me, I guess I had the ‘S’ on my jersey too because it was my final season and my final meet as a head coach. I couldn’t be more proud.”
Olivia Paradise can be reached at para4336@stthomas.edu.