Cross country men host SDSU Classic

Ariy-El Boynton

Ariy-El Boynton

At Edgebrook golf course SDSU men’s cross-country took on a talented host of teams, including meet champion Mankato State (MN) University.

Owatonna, Minn. native Andrew Van Nurden led the team with a second place finish overall. Van Nurden battled a pack of four Mankato West runners throughout the race.

The redshirt senior was able to shake three out of four Mavericks, but was unable to shake the final Maverick runner James Krasja. Krasja used a great kick at the end of the race to seal the individual championship.

Rapid City native Marshall Kambestad questioned whether he was going to run or not. In the end, Kambestad laced up his shoes and decided to run.

“I was little injured coming in, so I made an effort to start slow and make my way up through the race,” said Kambestad, “and I ended placing pretty well.”

SDSU coaching staff had nothing but good things to say about the redshirt freshman’s performance. “Marshall (Kambestad) gutted out and probably is going to help us get second or third overall,” said SDSU head cross-country coach Rod DeHaven.

The Jacks edged the University of Mary 82-88 to secure second place at the SDSU Classic. Mankato State finished first overall with 24 points.

Kambestad, unlike his senior teammate, was pack-less throughout the entire race, but was not without challenges. Matt Neff of the University of Mary challenged Kambestad at the end of the race.

“The U of Mary (Neff) came on me with two kilometers to go, so when he passed me luckily he pushed me, and I pushed him. He really helped me out,” said Kambestad.

Unlike Van Nurden, Kambestad out kicked his opponent (Neff) and finished in eighth place overall with a time of 25:56.

Other SDSU finishers include: 26th place finisher Josh Klawitter (26:52), Anthony Bongard (30) and Justin Peters (31), who each finished the race in 27 minutes, 6 seconds.

“On the guy side, injures have been a problem for us all year, and it showed today,” said former Olympian DeHaven.

The Jacks look to get healthy and compete at the Roy Griak Invitational Sept. 29.