Wins by both teams has SDSU building confidence for the season ahead.

The SDSU cross country team began their season on the right foot at the Rod Pynn Invitational Cross Country Meet hosted by the University of North Dakota.

The men’s team took the top three spots and four of the top five, while the women’s team took the top two spots and four of the top seven. The Jacks competed against runners from Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, Minot State University and host North Dakota.

The meet used a unique style of team scoring, matching each team against another. Both the men’s and women’s teams went 3-0 against opposing teams at the meet.

Senior Greg Vollmer took first place by 30 seconds in the 6K with a time of 25 minutes and 31.70 seconds. Freshman Trent Lusignan came in second place with a time of 26:03.42. Not far behind was junior Jared Ailts with a time of 26:07.55 and rounding out the top five was senior Kyle Schmidt with a time of 26:26.65.

“On the men’s side we tried to run five guys together until about half-way through, then it was kind of every man for himself. It was really nice to see freshman Trent Lusignan come in second place, however, the meet was not as long as one of our typical runs. It was only 6K instead of 8K,” head coach Rod DeHaven said.

In the women’s 5K run it was junior Erin Hargens who grabbed the top spot with a time of 18 minutes and 52.40 seconds. Junior Tera Potts locked up second place with a run of 18:56.18. Along with Hargens and Potts, Junior Danielle McCann and Freshman Courtney Neubert finished in sixth and seventh place, respectively, with times of 19:33.12 for McCann and 19:37.86 for Neubert.

“I was pleasantly surprised by the women’s team. It was nice to see their times improve from this time last year, especially since the conditions were not as good for the women,” DeHaven said.

DeHaven also went on to say that he didn’t really place an emphasis on expectations, given that the team has only been practicing for one warm week. While only practicing one week may not have a big impact on the team, SDSU will be tested Sept. 9 at the OZ Memorial in Minneapolis.

“It was nice to run against a couple of schools that we wouldn’t normally run against…but we’ll probably get a better feel for where our team is at next weekend,” DeHaven said.