September 22, 2002

THE OLYMPIAN
Seattle, Wash. - Ann McCanick covered 5,000 meters in 19 minutes, 23 seconds as Saint Martin's logged an impressive performance at the Sundodger Cross Country Invitational at Lincoln Park.

McCanick, Julie Thielen (19:47) and Nicole Beatty (19:57) finished in the top 65 out of 232 runners, according to coach Brad Hooper.

"They had an accident and pileup when a girl broke her foot at the finish line, so they were still trying to figure out order of finish and team scores," Hooper said.

"But all five of our girls had personal bests. I was excited. We had a great day, one of the best overall we've had at Saint Martin's."

Hooper figured the women finished about 18th or 19th among the 30 teams competing.

The men, meanwhile, were led by Chris Carpenter, Nathan Carlson and Andy Prentice in finishing 20th in team scoring.

Carpenter was 71st out of 250 runners in 26:30 over 8,000 meters, while Carlson was 96th in 27:00 and Prentice 123rd in 27:23.

"What really hurt was our No. 2 guy, Matt Gage, was out with an injury, and Carlson ran with a bad knee," Hooper said.

"If Gage had run, we would have gotten 14th or 15th, and if Carlson was healthy, we might have finished in the top 10. That's a big jump."

Dan Helms, Sports Information Director
Email contact: SMC Athletics
(360) 438-4328