FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. – The Mount Mary Cross Country team made the long trek to Minnesota's Twin Cities Saturday, taking part in the Gophers' Roy Griak Invitational. Despite some mixed results, the Blue Angels witnessed some of the region's best cross country squads as over 160 collegiate men's and women's teams took to the Les Bolstad Golf Course just northeast of the University of Minnesota campus.

"We took our first overnight trip of the season," head coach Eugene Miranda said. "The course was quite challenging and most of our runners were pushed to the limit. It was quite an experience to run against 30 other teams and some of the best Division III teams in the country were there."

The meet is one of the Midwest's biggest cross country events of the fall season and featured six collegiate races divided by division, four high school races and a kids' run this year. Taking place on a golf course with great variance in elevation, Mount Mary battled the early morning start as well as the overall excitement surrounding the event. When the dust settled, the Blue Angels battled to finish in 28th place out of 30 teams in the Maroon III race, but Miranda was "not displeased at all as every one of them tried their best and did not give up."

Team leader Emily Barker (Oconomowoc, Wis.) turned in the best time on the team, despite a few pre-match struggles. Barker's time of 26:37.2 was good enough for 145th place, while junior Vanessa Schellinger (West Bend, Wis.) wasn't too far behind posting a time of 28:04.9 to take home 179th place.

Freshman Mollee Ostrenga (Escanaba, Mich.) returned to the squad for her first official race in Minnesota, finishing fifth in the team race and 195th overall.

The Blue Angel running crew will be back in action Saturday at noon for the Warrior Invitational, hosted by Wisconsin Lutheran College. The meet will take place just south of the Zoo Interchange in Greenfield Park in West Allis.