Heading into the 2013 cross country season, the St. Catherine University squad hoped to build on its success from a year ago with a strong returning group of runners and competitive newcomers. And the Wildcats couldn't have asked for a better first meet as junior Ailee Larson won the UW-River Falls Falcon Invitational Saturday morning in River Falls, Wis. For her incredible performance, she ahs been named the Wildcat Athlete of the Week.Â
Not only was Larson's time of 22:12.6 enough for first-place, it was a new course record and is now the second fastest time in St. Kate's 6k history, just 14 seconds off of 2009 All-American Greta Sieve's school record of 21:58. After taking off the 2013 track and field season to study abroad, Larson has returned better than ever as she dropped 1:19 seconds from her previous personal record (PR) time of 23:31 – a time that earned her All-MIAC Honorable Mention honors and 25th-place at last year's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Championships.Â
Larson outran 147 other runners to claim first place and finished five seonds faster than the second finisher from nationally-ranked No. 16 UW-La Crosse. She also finished ahead of runners from No. 6 UW-Eau Claire and MIAC perrenial powerhouse University of St. Thomas, all while running barefoot.Â
Larson and the rest of the Wildcat squad take a weekend off before returning to action at the always competitive University of Minnesota Roy Griak Meet Saturday, Sept. 21 at 9 a.m. at the U of M Golf Course in St. Paul.Â
