Jacks' XC Finished Four Races Saturday

Saturday, October 14

Louisville, Ky.

11 a.m.

South Dakota State University

Pre-National Invitational

10/14/2017 9:11:00 PM | Cross Country, Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country

2017 WXC Perform List 2017 MXC Perform List Meet Notes: Pre-Nationals & Ron Pynn 2017

Pre-Nationals: men finish 29th, women 40th; Ron Pynn Open: men finish third, women second

The South Dakota State cross country team split on Saturday. One men's and women's team went down to Louisville, Ky. to compete in the Pre-National Invitational, the precursor to the NCAA Championships on Nov. 18. The other part of the team traveled to Grand Forks, N.D. to compete in the Ron Pynn Open.

Pre-National Invitational
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The men's team that made the trek to Kentucky placed 29th out of 41 teams, including eight nationally-ranked teams (#2 BYU, #5 Arkansas, #7 Colorado, #8 Oregon, #12 Virginia Tech, #19 Georgetown, #24 Ole Miss, and #27 Utah State). All the runners on the team improved their career 8k time with the competition.

Highlighting SDSU's victory was beating Kansas and Saint Louis, who are both ranked in the Midwest Region like the Jacks, at 11th. The 10th ranked Kansas squad placed 40th while the 15th ranked Saint Louis team was three spots behind SDSU.

Leading the way for the Jackrabbits for the second time this year was sophomore Chase Cayo, placing 67th (24:13.6). He led the team in the Roy Griak, another quality meet. His time is his best 8k of his career.

Coming in second for SDSU, seven seconds behind Cayo, was junior Kyle Burdick. He finished 81st with a time of 24:20.8. The time is his career-best time as a Jackrabbit.

Sophomore Lukas Nelson and junior Cal Lawton were the next finishers in the Pre-National Invitational, finishing 149th (24:52.7) and 221st (25:27.2). Both runners improved their time, Nelson by nearly a minute and Lawton 40 seconds.

Rounding out the mens' runners were freshmen Gabe Peters and sophomore Sam Ivanecky. They placed 224th (25:28.3) and 256th (25:53.6) and both improved upon their respective times.

For the women's side of competition, they competed against nine nationally-ranked teams (#1 Colorado, #2 Oregon, #4 Michigan, #9 Arkansas, #12 Ole Miss, #16 BYU, #19 Utah State, #24 Missouri, and #25 Georgia.) to finish 40th with 1,012 points.

The top runner was junior Rachel King, who placed 71st (20:55.9). It is now her third race of the season, leading all of them for the Jackrabbits.

The next two finishers were junior Emily Berzonsky (200th, 22:10.1) and freshman Anna Donnay (230th, 22:27.9). Donnay improved upon her season-best time by 54 seconds in the 6k (previous best – 23:21.1; Oz Memorial).

Rounding out the Jacks in the race was junior Mackenzie Schell (257th, 23:04.5), freshman Cailee Peterson (263rd, 23:17.8), and senior Halie Mechels (269th, 23:23.4). Schell improved her 6k time of 23:46.3 she set in the Oz Memorial this year.

Ron Pynn Open
GRAND FORKS, North Dakota – The Jackrabbits that competed in Grand Forks, N.D. competed against North Dakota State for the fifth time and North Dakota for third time.

The men's team finished third (143 points) behind both NDSU (35) and North Dakota (94), making them 3-2 against the Bison and 2-1 against the Fighting Hawks.

Unattached runner Alexander Auch would have led the Jacks with his 15th-place performance. It's his second race of the year competing unattached, improving his 8k time from 26:30.30 in the SDSU Classic.

Finishing as the top runner for the Jackrabbit team was freshman Jacob Wilts, who finished 19th (25:45.3) in his fifth race of the season. He also beat his SDSU Classic 8k time of 26:46.20.

Just making the top 30 was sophomore Connor Haaland, who placed 29th (26:21.6) and carved a new career-best 8k (previous-best 27:11.7). Fellow sophomore Chandler Klawitter also improved upon his 8k time with a 31st-place finish (26:28.5).

Also improving his 8k time was freshman Evan Fick, who placed 45th (27:42.7). He beat his previous personal-best by more than 30 seconds (28:15.40).

For the women's side, they beat North Dakota (84 points) but lost to North Dakota State (16 points) as they scored 62 points. That makes their record against NDSU this year 2-3 and 3-0 against North Dakota.

Junior Renae Dykstra led the charge for the women, placing fifth (18:07.8) in the 5k. That was her highest finish in her career. The time was also her new career-best 5k, beating her old time by nearly a minute (19:08.84, 2017 SDSU Classic).

Following Renae, was sister Kendra Dykstra, who placed two spots behind for a seventh-place finish (18:12.2). The sophomore also improved upon her 5k time of 19:02.5.

Rounding out the top 20 was junior Rachel Propst (17th, 18:38.0) and sophomore Anna Fasen (19th, 18:50.2). Both of the women carved out new personal-bests in the 5k (Propst's previous-best – 19:31.97; Fasen's previous-best – 19:22.12).

Others improving their times were: sophomore Emma Nelson (new: 18:55.8, old: 19:45.0), freshmen Maisey Bainbridge (new: 19:27.8, old: 20:38.04), and junior Shelby Bickett (new: 19:38.9, old: 20:38.42).

Next Up
Next up for the cross country squad will be the Summit League Championships. On October 28, the Jackrabbits travel down to Vermillion, S.D. to compete in league championships. Last year, the men's team captured their fifth league title while the women finished third, their sixth consecutive top-three finish.

For more information on the South Dakota State cross country teams, follow the Jackrabbits on Twitter (@GoJacksTFXC) and Instagram (@GoJacksTFXC) like us Facebook (/GoJacksTFXC).

-GoJacks.com-