With Minnesota’s top runners heading to Saturday’s South Dakota State Classic, the Golden Gopher women’s cross country team posted a fourth-place finish at the Wisconsin-Eau Claire Blugold Open on Friday in Colfax, Wis. Wisconsin-LaCrosse won the meet with 40 points.

Sophomore Kristin Johansen paced the Gophers’ effort with a fourth-place finish, covering the 6-kilometer course in a time of 22 minutes, 59.07 seconds. UW-LaCrosse’s Kristen Painter, last week’s Griak Maroon II Race runner-up, captured medalist honors with a time of 22:24.88.

The Gophers’ tallied 110 team points, receiving scoring efforts from Claire Bootsma, Stacia Kalinoski, Kayla Zander and Shanna Bodilly. Bootsma, a redshirt freshman, chopped 48 seconds off her personal-best time, finishing 22nd in 23:57.52. Kalinoski finished in 23rd a second later at 23:58.70. Zander crossed the finish line in 33rd place in a time of 24:14.99, while Bodilly was 34th in 24:15.01.

Completing the Gophers’ top seven were Brittni Swanson, 42nd in 24:34.92, and Becca Tollefson, 43rd in 24:36.16.