Women's Results
Men's Results
The Augustana women's cross country team placed five runners in the top 10 to easily win the 2008 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Championships Saturday in Aberdeen, S.D. Meanwhile, the Augustana men turned in a strong performance to earn a second-place finish.
The Viking women cruised to the title with a team score of 32 points. It is the school's first-ever NSIC championship in any sport. Minnesota Duluth was second with a score of 56 points. As a result of the Vikings' dominating performance, head coach
Tracy Hellman was named the NSIC Women's Cross Coutnry Coach of the Year.
In the men's race, Augustana finished with a team score of 74 points. Minnesota State University, Mankato, won the men's conference title with 22 points.
All seven of Augustana's women's runners earned All-NSIC honors, while the men had five All-NSIC finishers. The top 10 finishers in each race earn all-conference first team honors, while second team accolades go to competitors who finish in places 11 through 20.
Alyssa Anderson paced the Augustana women by finishing third with a time of 22:39 for the 5K course.
Miranda Wagner,
Molly Clark,
Jillian Tholen and
Jenny Rogers joined her in the top 10. Wagner finished fifth in 22:48, while Clark was seventh at 22;53. Tholen and Rogers were eighth and ninth, respectively, in times of 23:12 and 23:27.
Laura Johnson turned in an 18th-place finish with a time of 23:53, while
Caitlin Polgreen was 20th in a time of 23:58.
It is Augustana's second-straight conference title. The Vikings won the final North Central Conference championship in 2007.
For the men,
Travis Beniak led Augustana by placing eighth with a time of 26:16 on the 8K course. He was Augie's lone top 10 finisher. However, the Vikings, competing without top runner
Austin Vande Berg, showed its depth with four other runners finishing in the top 20.
Matt Braithwaite was 14th in a time of 26:40, while
Peter Oien was right behind him in 15th place in 26:41.
Kaleb Boese and
Daniel Black placed 18th and 19th in times of 26:48 and 26:50. Rounding out the team was
Matt Heesch in 22nd place in 27:03 and
Nathaniel Petrich in 24th place in 27:07.
The Vikings will take off next week before competing in the NCAA Central Region Championships on Saturday, November 8, in Kearney, Neb.