RAPID CITY, S.D. --- The South Dakota School of Mines men's and women's cross country teams kicked off the 2017 season Saturday hosting the Hardrocker Cross Country Classic at Robbinsdale Park in Rapid City, S.D. Along with the Hardrockers, other teams that competed were Chadron State, Black Hills State, Gillette College and Central Wyoming College.

In the women's race, Black Hills State's Tori Moore was the overall champion, finishing the 5K race in a time of 19 minutes 34.27 seconds while Nicky Applegarth of Chadron State was a distant second in a time of 19:56.93.

SD Mines top performance was brought in by senior Adeline Straatmeyer, who posted a time of 20:38.40 and finished sixth while fellow senior Ryley Sutton took ninth place while clocking a mark of 21:01.71.

"On the women's side we knew the strength was in our pack time," said Hardrocker cross country head coach Steve Johnson. "Our No.3 through No. 7 runners all ran basically right together through the entire race --- that is great to see as a coach. "

SD Mines junior Erica Westerman finished 14^th (21:28.18), senior Libby Friesen was a spot back in 15^th place (21:29.90), junior Rachel Lovelace grabbed 16^th (21:31.55), sophomore Kayla Gagen secured 18^th (21:32.55) and senior Kari Radke came in 18^th (21:35.81).  Freshman Laramie Giles rounded out the day for the Lady 'Rockers in 30^th place in a time of 25:07.96.

"We will spread out a little bit more as the season progresses, but we knew the strength was going to be in that pack --- and that's exactly what happened," Johnson added.

In the men's 8K race, Ayrton Fuentes of Gillette College took top honors in a time of 26:52.30 while Joshua Davis of Black Hills State was second in a time of 27:00.02.

The Hardrockers top runner was junior Jacob Huber, who finished 13^th in a time of 27:53.90 and freshman Andrew Ferris took 18^th after posting a time of 28:07.87.
As for the rest of the Hardrockers, sophomore Aidan Anderson came in 20^th (28:15.14); sophomore Theron Singleton finished 33^rd (29:49.68), sophomore Ben Colvin grabbed 35^th (30:08.68), freshman Joel Haas was 37^th (30:48.55); freshman Wyatt Doge came in 40^th (32:09.46), and freshman Tim Meyers ended in 41^st (32:21.96).

"On the guys' side, we have a lot of youth and we know it is going to take a little bit of time for them to adjust to running an 8k race and that kind of showed today," Johnson said. "They were starting to feel it – especially around the 5K mark, which is what they were running in high school. But they did a nice job of pushing through and persevering."

The Hardrockers also retained the South Dakota / Wyoming Pickaxe Saturday, winning it back from Gillette College. The two programs take the scores of both their men and women runners with the lowest score winning.

 "One of our main goals today was to run a great race and win back the pickaxe trophy from Gillette. Mission accomplished," Johnson said.