With winter flurries and a high of 31 degrees, both South Dakota State cross country teams excelled at the Summit League Cross Country Championship as the men finished first and the women in second.
SDSU showed out in front of the home crowd, for the first time the championship was held in Brookings, South Dakota.
The men’s team finished with a total of 46 points, tying NDSU but due to guidelines from the NCAA, the Jackrabbits took home the win since their team had the Crowd Champion.
Carson Noecker, a true freshman on the SDSU men’s team took home the gold and more with his time of 24 minutes and 17.2 seconds in the 8k. The Nebraska native is the first ever male athlete to win the Championship MVP and Newcomer of the Championship awards since the awards started.
However, he wasn’t the only SDSU runner to place top-5 in the men’s race. Junior Josh Becker took fifth with his impressive time of 24:51.3 while Daniel Burkhalter finished in sixth, less than two seconds behind Becker at 24:53.1.
Freshman Christian Noble and junior Cody Larson took 16th and 18th place respectively. Noble ran a 25:15.4 while Larson finished with a time of 25:23.3.
Jackson Dutcher took 20th at 25:29.7, Will Lohr’s time of 25:44.0 put him in 26th while Luke Johnson finished at 26:09.1 which placed him in 38th.
SDSU had two more men’s runners compete, Mason McDonald who placed 54th at 27:27.6 and Andrew Moeller who ran a 28:17.2 for 58th place.
For the women’s 6k, it was Leah (Hansen) Hisken who paved the way for the Jackrabbits, ending up in second place with a time of 21:06.8 while Jessica Lutmer (21:24.5) and Mya Kizer (21:28.8) finished back-to-back for 9th and 10th place.
South Dakota State had two more runners in the top 20, Claire Beckman who took 14th place and Caitlin Bright who finished in 20th place. Beckman ran a time of 21:54.1 while Bright finished at 22:11.8.
Nicole Greyer grabbed 23rd at 22:21.7, Grace Waage finished in 27th place with the time of 22:32.3 and Emma Gonzalez’s 22:35.6 put her in 29th place for the day.
Sophomore Emma Ecker crossed the finish line at 22:56.0, earning 35th place and rounding out the Rabbit runners was Sierra Watterud, who finished in 43rd place at 23:10.7.
Both Jackrabbit teams will travel down south to Stillwater, Oklahoma, home of the Oklahoma State Cowboys for the NCAA Midwest Regionals on Friday, Nov. 10 at the Greiner Family OSU Cross Country Course.
