Sept. 1, 2012

Results

Palos Heights, Ill. - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee cross country team kicked of the 2012 season with a strong showing at the UIC Quad Saturday morning.

The men's team finished third on the day, picking up lopsided wins over conference-foe Green Bay and Chicago State, while narrowly falling to Saint Xavier and the host Flames.

The young women's team also won mightily over Chicago State, grabbing the top seven spots in the pairing, and lost their other four head-to-head matchups in close fashion.

"We came into the meet with different objectives on the men's and women's side," Milwaukee head coach Pete Corfeld said. "On the men's side, it was a really nice opener for the young group of guys. We held out our older runners because they don't need as much early-season training during this long season and we're keeping them fresh.

"For the women, we have a younger team and I was pleased with a lot of things that I saw. In the end, it's all about building up and getting into the swing of things. I thought it was really productive and I'm excited about getting back out next week."

A handful of freshmen led the way for Milwaukee on the men's 4.1-mile course. Gerrit Bruni was the Panthers top finisher, coming in eighth out of more than 50 runners at 21:55.6 in just his first-ever collegiate meet.

Fellow newcomers Weston Brusky (22:10.1) and Tony Sustachek (22:17.5) were right next to each other at 15th and 16th overall. Reed Schmidt was right behind at 22:34.0 for 19th, while sophomore Louie Glotfelty (22:54.7) also scored and was the only non-newcomer in the race for UWM.

Freshman Kurt Sustachek (23:03.5) and Anthony Buensuceso (25:50.3) also made their debuts for the Black & Gold Saturday.

Classmates Annette Lemanski (12:26.8) and Dana Clausen (12:29.5) built off last year's first year on the college scene and showed improvement, crossing the line 23rd and 24th overall.

Newcomer Ana Wanniarachchi scored in her first collegiate performance, taking 28th overall in 12:39.0. Katy Koch closed out the scoring for the Panthers, taking 35th with a time of 13:10.3.

Brooke Jameson (37th), Emily Schaal (38th) and Adriana Gutierrez (41st) also ran strong in the first meet of the season for Milwaukee.

The Panthers return to action next Saturday at the Midwest Collegiate Invitational. The meet is hosted by UW-Parkside in Kenosha.