South Dakota State University Athletics
Rachel King & Chase Cayo Win Athlete of the Year
11/30/2017 1:56:00 PM | Cross Country, Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country
Jackrabbit Cross Country
Rachel King
Personal Bests: 4k:Â 14:19.4 (2015 XC, NDSU Open, 9/4);Â 5k:Â 17:50.6 (2016 XC, SDSU Classic, 10/1);Â 6k:20:28.2 (2017 XC, NCAA Midwest Regionals, 11/10)
Competed in seven events ... earned NCAA All-Region honors for a 10th-place finish, first among Jackrabbits (20:28.2) at the NCAA Midwest Regionals (11/10) ... that time is her best 6k performance of her career and it's the fastest 6k in the regionals among all Jackrabbits ... just missed an opportunity to run at the NCAA Championships ... the time is a league-best for the season in the 6k ... won (20:53.54) The Summit League Championship (10/28), earning Championship MVP, first-team All-League and claiming third place on The Summit League's all-time fastest championship winning time list ... the time also ranks fifth on the league's fastest times in the championship race ... it is the fastest time at the championships among Jackrabbits and it was the league's third-fastest 6k time of the season ... she improved her championship time by 19.2 seconds ... placed 71st (20:55.9) at the Pre-National Invite (10/14), which is ranked as second-fastest time in the league's season performance list (owns the league's top two times of the season) ... the performance earned Summit League Athlete of the Week recognition, her first of the season and third of her career ... ran her lone 5k at the SDSU Classic (9/29), winning the race (17:51.56) ... the time ranks sixth-fastest on the league's top 5k-times of the season ... at the Roy Griak (9/23), her first race of the season, she placed 81st (23:30.9) ... it was her best time in two attempts at the Griak... earned academic all-league and Summit League Athlete of the Year for the performances throughout the year.
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Chase CayoÂ
Personal Bests: 6k:Â 19:29.6 (2016 XC, NDSU Open, 9/2);Â 4-Mile:Â 20:13.0 (2017 XC, Oz Memorial, 9/8);Â 8k:Â 24:13.6 (2017 XC, Pre-Nationals, 10/14);Â 10k:Â 31:21.9 (2017 XC, NCAA Midwest Regionals, 11/11)
Competed in six events ... finished second for the Jacks, 45th overall (30:06.2) at the NCAA Midwest Regionals (11/10) ... it is his personal-best time in the 10k and it's ranked fourth on the top Jackrabbit times at the regionals ... the time ranked second-fastest in The Summit League this season, fourth-fastest all-time in the league ... won his first career Summit League Championship (10/28) race while earning the Championship MVP and first-team All-Summit accolades ... his time of 24:44.78 beat his 2016 league championship time by 1:04.8 minutes and placed him ninth on the league's all-time fastest championship winning time list ... the mark also ranks him third on SDSU's all-time 8k times in The Summit League Championships and third-fastest in the league's 2017 season performance list ... he led the Jackrabbit squad in the Pre-National Invite (10/14), among numerous ranked teams, by improving his personal-best time by over a minute ... he placed 67th (24:13.6), which is the new fastest time among active Jackrabbits and the league's fastest 8k-time of the season ... the performance is four seconds short of The Summit League's top 10 8k times (all-time) ...  earned his second Summit League Athlete of the Week of the season, his second career honor ... finished second (25:23.50) in the SDSU Classic (9/29) ... was his best time at the SDSU Classic ... placed 12th (25:32.0) at the Roy Griak (9/23) with a field of ranked teams ... the time is his personal-best at the Griak and top time among active Jacks ... finished second (20:13.0) at the Oz Memorial (9/8) ... it was his best four-mile time and Oz Memorial performance ... earned academic all-league and Summit League Athlete of the Year for the performances throughout the year.
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Season Recap - Men
The men's team wrapped up the season at Iowa State while beating the other two Summit League schools in the region (#13 North Dakota State and South Dakota) and regionally-ranked #14 Wichita State.
At The Summit League Championships, the team brought home their sixth championship in the short 11 years they have been a member of the Summit League. The Jacks won it with their second-lowest score in the championship race with 31 points, placing 1-2-4-11-13-17-22 in the top 25 (scored 25 points in the 2016 championship).
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The Jacks have won all of their championships in back-to-back seasons (2009-10, 2012-13, 2016-17) and is one of two active Summit League Schools that have won Summit League titles (Western Illinois won a title in 1991). The men's team has finished in the top two every year since 2012, claiming four titles.
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Three Jackrabbits earned first-team All-Summit League performances, which ties for second-most in school history with the 2012 and 2015 teams (2016 had four first-team All-Summit League performers). As a total, SDSU had five All-Summit League runners, most of any team this year, and tying the 2013 team with the second-most honors (2016 had six). Â
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Not only did the men's team have the most All-Summit League performers, but they swept the Championship MVP, Newcomer of the Championship, and Coach of the Year Award. It is the second time SDSU has swept the awards (first time, 2013) and the only other school to do it was IUPUI in 2014.
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Head coach Rod DeHaven claimed his sixth Summit League Men's Coach of the Year honor, the most of any coach since 2007 when the Jacks joined the Summit League. He now has seven total coach of the year honors between both men and women.
The men's team split up on Oct. 14, some 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). While the others travlled to Grand FOorks, N.D. to compete in the Ron Pynn Open against North Dakota State for the fifth time and North Dakota for third time.
Highlighting SDSU's race at the Pre-National 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. All the runners on the team improved their career 8k time with the competition.
The team that competed in the Ron Pynn 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.
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As SDSU hosted their lone meet of the season, the squad placed 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 to score 18 points and beat North Dakota State (second, 59 points) and North Dakota (third, 69). It was their third straight year winning the SDSU Classic and seventh win of the last nine meets.
Despite the challenges of competition and undesirable weather, the both the men's and women's team had multiple personal-bests recorded at the Les Bolstad Golf Course in Falcon Heights, Minn. for the Roy Griak.Â
The men's team finished eighth (242 points) in a field of competition displaying No. 18 Colorado State, who won the meet (47), Â No. 25 Michigan State (second, 55) and No. 20 UCLA (third, 63).
In the first meet of the season, the men's team scored 42 points, coming behind North Dakota State's 25 points, and finishing better than North Dakota's 59 points. (the scoring of the NDSU Open was dual-based scoring).
Season Recap - Women
The women's team finished their season by placing 15th in the NCAA Regionals after coming in with a 23rd-place checkpoint at the mile. The Jacks scored 405 points and beating the Summit League runner-ups in North Dakota State.
At the league championships, the team finished in the top three yet again with six top-25 runners. That is now six years in a row where they have finished in the top three.
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The Jacks finished with three All-Summit League performers, tying with North Dakota State for the second-most honors this year. The Jacks have now claimed two straight Summit League individual titles and championship MVP's (Emily Donnay in 2016, Rachel King in 2017).
For the women's side of competition the team also split between two meets on Hobo Weekend. Some 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 at Lousiville, Ky.
The Ron Pynn group 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.
As the women hosted the SDSU Classic, the team scored 25 points and had five top 10 spots taken (1-4-5-6-9-10). The women's team has won back-to-back SDSU Classics.
At the 32nd Roy Griak, in hot weather conditions, the team finished 14th (396 points) among competition such as No. 8 San Francisco (won, 22), No. 23 Iowa State (second, 72), No. 19 Minnesota (third, 85) and No. 20 Michigan State (fourth, 91).
In the first meet of the season, the women's side scored 44 points, behind NDSU with 23 points and before North Dakota with 68 points (the scoring of the NDSU Open was dual-based scoring).
Social Media
For more information on the South Dakota State cross country and track and field teams, follow the Jackrabbits on Twitter (@GoJacksTFXC) and Instagram (@GoJacksTFXC) like us Facebook (/GoJacksTFXC).
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Players Mentioned
