Oct. 2, 2010
MADISON, Wis. - The Purdue men's cross country team placed 11th, while the Boilermaker women tied for 13th at the Wisconsin adidas Invitational, hosted by the Badgers at Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course on Saturday. Sophomore Camille Buscomb highlighted the day, breaking the Purdue women's 6K record with her time of 20:47.8, while junior Charles White led the Purdue men for the third straight race with his 8K mark of 24.11.9.
"It was a pretty good effort overall, beating a few Big Ten and ranked teams on both sides," said Purdue head coach Jack Warner. "Charles White and Stephen Schulz put up great results on the men's side, while Camille Buscomb gave a great competitive effort on the women's. Both were very encouraged by a great showing on the Big Ten course and this should have us very ready the rest of the way."
The Boilermaker men totaled 308 points and claimed 11th place, despite the absence of sophomore Simon Rogers, who is a staple of their top-five. White's time is a new career best, topping his mark from the IPFW Invitational this season, and is less than 10 seconds shy of the Boilermakers' all-time top-10 for 8K. He finished 31st overall, followed closely by sophomore teammate Stephen Schulz in 40th place, setting a new career-best 8K time of 24:19.4. Junior co-captain Cale Allen and senior Caden Shields were the next two across the line for Purdue with respective times of 24:25.0 and 24:37.2 as Allen clocked a new season-best, and freshman Scott Vicenzi capped the Purdue scoring with a time of 25:36.6.
Purdue was the No. 6 Big Ten team on the day, finishing ahead of Iowa and Michigan, as well as No. 20 Providence and future Big Ten foe Nebraska. Indiana topped the men's race with 43 points, upsetting several high-ranked opponents, including the sixth-ranked host Badgers.
Buscomb's mark breaks the previous Boilermaker 6K record, set by Amber Ferner at the 2004 Great Lakes Regional meet, by just over six seconds, and was good for 23rd overall on the day. Junior teammate Stephanie Bonk grabbed a spot on the top-10 list for 6K as well, finishing in 21:22.5 for eighth all-time at Purdue and 56th on the day. Senior Jennifer Hall posted the Boilermakers' No. 3 mark on the day, smashing her personal record for 6K by almost two minutes with a time of 21:42.9 and finishing in the team's top-five for the first time this season. Junior Kara Conflenti and sophomore Kelly McCurdy rounded out the Purdue top-five with 6K personal records as well as Conflenti broke the 22-minute mark for the first time at 21:56.3, while McCurdy crossed the line in 22:23.1.
The Boilermaker women were the No. 4 Big Ten school across the line, tying Illinois and topping Wisconsin, in addition to beating Great Lakes regional foes Eastern Michigan and Marquette. No. 11 Syracuse won the women's race with a score of 89 points.
Both the Purdue men and women will return to action in two weeks at the Pre-National Invitational, hosted by Indiana State.