CHADRON, Neb. -- The South Dakota School of Mines men's and women's cross country teams competed very well during the Chadron State Cross Country Invitational Saturday morning in Nebraska where the Hardrocker men took first place and the Hardrocker women's team earned second in the team division.
"We were pretty happy with the way the day went," said Hardrocker cross country head coach
Steve Johnson. "The course had some significant changes due to construction and was more challenging than previous years. We got to see some athletes run that didn't run last week and held a few back to focus on training."
SD Mines won the men's division, scoring 22 points to take top honors. The 'Rockers filled six of the Top 10 spots.
Sam Elliott was the top 'Rockers, earning fourth place in the race in a time of 27 minutes, 42.02 seconds, followed by
Timothy Dunham in fifth place in a time of 27:42.38 and Lukas Lehpmuhl was sixth after clocking a 27:53.87.
As for the rest of the Hardrockers,
Brett Flerchinger took seventh (27:58.68);
Monty Christo, III finished eighth (29:29.05);
Grant Bauer notched ninth (28:35.80);
Mark Boden was 13th (30:40.99); and
Isaac Orozco took 14th (31:00.56).
"It's nice to see our depth on the men's side," Johnson said. " Tim and Sam were very solid up front and pushed each other throughout including a very close finish. Overall, our guys had a great pack from the beginning and did an excellent job pushing each other throughout the race."
The women's finished second with 34 total points.
Adeline Wilson won the women's division in a time of 21:33.91 while
Alyssa Franke finished sixth after clocking a 22:13.17.
Taylor Bright posted a 23:34.59 to take ninth place;
Margaret Thompson came in 10th place with a time of 24:05.77; and
Kelby Wilson posted a 25:18.87 to finish 13th place.
"The women ran really well, too. Adeline ran a tremendous race and did a lot of work to steal the win in the last 400 meters. Alyssa and Taylor showed a lot of improvement from last week, as well and did a good job helping to break up Chadron's pack," Johnson added.
