NORTH SIOUX CITY, Iowa – Cailee Peterson and Oksana Johnson recorded top-five individual finishes to lead the South Dakota State women's cross country team Friday at the Briar Cliff Invite.
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Peterson, a senior from Mayville, North Dakota, finished second out of 130 runners in the 5,000-meter race at the Adams Nature Preserve with a time of 17 minutes, 55.99 seconds. Ella Byers of the University of South Dakota crossed the finish line first in 17:39.12.
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A senior from Ankeny, Iowa, Johnson added a fourth-place finish in 17:59.33 for the Jackrabbits, who finished third in the team standings with 68 points. South Dakota won the event with 25 points, followed by Nebraska-Kearney with 55.
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Sophomores Nicole Greyer and Kayla Christopherson were in the next tier of runners for the Jackrabbits, placing 13th (18:39.52) and 18th (18:48.80), respectively. Malorie Schmoll closed out the scoring runs for SDSU with a 42nd-place time of 19:50.13.
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Also contributing upper-half finishes were Janean Hanka (44th, 19:53.83, Grace Waage (54th, 20:20.17), Abbey Stadler (55th, 20:21.96), Hannah Neusch (58th, 20:24.33) and Hannah Nelson (64th, 20:40.79). Megan Sievers rounded out the list of Jackrabbit competitors by placing 70th in 21:04.81.
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In the men's division, the Jackrabbits did not field a complete team but received a third-place overall finish from Max Selbach. A senior from Glendale, Wisconsin, Selbach covered the 8,000-meter course in 25.20.60 in finishing behind Merga Gemeda (24:56.84) and Charlie Babcock (25.08.05) from South Dakota.
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Josh Baker finished 10th in 26:09.32 and Nathan Notgrass placed 16th in a time of 26:43.20. Newcomers Ben Anteau, Cormick Logue and Kyle Nordling competed unattached.
 UP NEXT
The Jackrabbit women's squad returns to action Oct. 15 at the Bradley Pink Invitational in Peoria, Illinois. Next competition for the men's team is Oct. 15 at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational in Verona, Wisconsin.
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