Following a good showing at their season opening Augustana Twilight meet, SDSU’s cross country teams will be traveling to Falcon Heights, Minnesota for the Griak Invitational at the Les Bolstad Golf Course. The men’s race starts at 10 a.m. and women’s starts at 10:45 a.m.
Four races each are slated for the Merrill Fischbein Men’s gold and the Jack Johnson Women’s gold, a 1M, 3K, 5K and 8k. With the event being one of the bigger meets of the year, there are aspects that make it unique for South Dakota State.
“The regionality of it, just being in Minneapolis and typically we’re a roster that has a lot of South Dakota, a lot of Minnesota student-athletes on the team so many of them participate in the event of it in high school,” said head coach Rod DeHaven “This year certainly holds a somewhat sad (feeling), because the golf course is up for sale and most likely this will be the last iteration of this at this venue.”
The Twilight saw five Jackrabbits place in the top five for the men’s four mile run. Senior Cody Larson led the way with an SDSU record time of 18:00.10, followed by Jackson Dutcher in second and Cashton Johnson in third. The previous record was held by fellow Jackrabbit Brandon Kampsen, who ran an 18:41.8. Kampsen placed fourth in the four mile run this time around with a run of 18:44.92.
Three women placed in the top-five as well, Ashlyn Hillyard placed first with a time of 17:04.27. Narrowly behind her was Eleni Lovgren, getting a time of 17:04.76 for second and Courtney Stadter taking third with a 17:08.47 minute run.
45 Jackrabbits will be participating in the race, including Augustana Twilight top-five finishers Larson, Dutcher, Johnson, Kampsen and fifth place finisher Will Lohr for the men. The Women will be sending out top-five finishers Hillyard, Lovgren and Stadter.
The race will feature some highly talented teams, including last year’s record holders Wyoming and Minnesota. Wyoming’s men finished last year with a 63 point total on the 6K. DeHaven mentioned how teams like Wyoming that move down in altitude for meets usually perform well. The women’s team for Minnesota finished with 47.
South Dakota State has won the race twice while performing in the D2 and D3 bracket, once with the men’s team in 1996 and once with the women’s team in 1989.
There was one SDSU top time as well, Jessie Kinschl finished with a time of 18:15 back in 1999.
According to DeHaven, the Griak Invitational will be a good measuring stick before returning home for the SDSU Classic at the Edgebrook golf course Oct. 3rd. DeHaven says that this race, which is considered difficult due to its many hills, will be a good way to see how ready the team is.
“It’s usually a good wakeup call. My theory on this course is it’s an indictment of what you’ve done in the summer,” said DeHaven. “Your ability to handle probably higher volumes. You can’t necessarily fake or run through those hills unless you’ve done the work in the summer and typically, you know the higher volume guys are going to benefit more on a course like this.”
