MEN'S RESULTS | WOMEN'S RESULTS
ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Augustana men's and women's cross country teams swept the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Championships for the fourth straight year. This marks the fifth straight NSIC title for the top-ranked women and the fourth straight for the men who are currently ranked fifth in th nation. Head coach
Tracy Hellman earned NSIC coach of the year for both the men's and women's teams.
Hellman described how pleased he with his team after the big win, “Winning conference titles is never easy and we [the coaching staff] very excited to keep our winning streaks alive. There are some very good individuals and teams in this conference so it is a good feeling to come out on top. Conference titles are a very big deal within our program and we are glad that we were able to come out successful today.”
Paul Yak continued his outstanding junior year with the NSIC individual title for the second consecutive year. Yak paced the Vikings with a time of 24:59 on the 8k course. The nationally fifth-ranked Vikings placed five of the top seven runners and registered a five-runner spread of 48.3 seconds which measures the difference between in time between the first and fifth runners on each team.
Travis Beniak and
Adam Braun finished second and third overall, respectively while
TJ Gleason and
Nathan Hauge rounded out the top five for the Vikings with fifth and seventh place finishes overall. The 18 points for the men's team was 33 points above second place Minnesota State.
The women lived up to their number one national ranking and placed four of the top five runners to take the team title. The women earned 23 points which was 47 points above second placed Winona State and Augustana's five-runner spread 49.4 seconds.
Leah Black was the Vikings' top finisher in 22:01, good enough for second place overall on the 6k course. Black was followed by Runa Flach,
Kristin Brondbo, and
Annie Pfeifle, in the next three spots and
Kyle Blakeslee secured the Vikings' victory with her ninth place finish.
Hellman also discussed the success of the individual performances, “Our team spread from one through five was under a minute for both teams and that is very important as we head to regionals and nationals. We are excited about our performance today but know that we will continue to get better each week. It was a great day to be a Viking!”
Augustana now heads to the NCAA Regional Championships in Joplin, Mo. on Nov. 3.
