Feeling the pressure behind her, Kelsey Holsapple somehow came up with a kick in the last 200 meters to hold off a strong challenge by Augustana College in the 1600 meter leg of the Distance Medley Relay. Filling in at the last second, Kelsey completed a strong 1 1/2 miles of racing within a time period of less than an hour. The DMR was led of by the Volleyball duo of Amanda Holman and Brianne Wille. Amanda took the lead with the opening 1200 meters and handed off to Brianne, who ran a strong 400 leg on just 2 days of training. Marissa Menke held the lead with her 800 leg and Kelsey completed the double.
Earlier, the 4 x 800 team of Amanda, Kelsey, Hannah Griffin, and Marissa dominated the field with a fine time of 10:30. Leading from start to finish, the foursome essentially ran against the clock and an incessant backstretch wind.
Carl Pflederer also represented the Cougars with his first ever 5km track run. Racing for the first time since last fall, he gamely hung with the pack for the first half of the race, but fell back a bit in the last 6 laps. It was a good first effort under tough conditions.
