Hardrockers Set for Conference Championships
RAPID CITY, S.D. --- The South Dakota Mines men's and women's cross country programs will travel to Colorado Springs, Colorado, this weekend to compete in the RMAC conference championships. The meet will take place on Saturday with the men toeing the starting line at 9:30 a.m. and the women will follow at 10:15 a.m. The meet is hosted by the University of Colorado – Colorado Springs.

"We're looking forward to getting into a bigger field to see how we stack up against some of the best programs in the country," said Hardrocker cross country head coach Steve Johnson.

During the Covid-19 shortened season, both teams competed in two meets this fall. The Hardrockers first meet of the year was hosted by Black Hills State in Spearfish, South Dakota. The men came away with the win scoring 21 points. The women took second with 14 points. In the second event, hosted by Chadron State College in Nebraska, the women and men came back home with the W. The women scored 24 points, while the men tallied 20 points.

Leading the way for the men at BHSU Invite was junior Timothy Dunham. He placed second overall with a time of 26 minutes 49.2 seconds. Senior Joel Haas was third and sophomore Monty Christo, III took fifth. Lindsay Butler (freshman finished fourth on the women's side with a time of 24:43.1.

At CSC, Taylor Bright (Senior) crossed the finish line first with a time of 20:00.63. Alyssa Franke (sophomore) was third and freshmen Ryley Darnell secured fifth. Dunham once again led the men with a first-place finish in a time of 25:43.12. Christo was third, sophomore Brett Flerchinger placed fourth, while senior Theron Singleton registered fifth.

Traveling to compete this Saturday will be Bright, Butler, Darnell, Franke, Hannah Denman, Nadia Kaczmarz, Lillian Knudtson, Abigaile Saline and Adeline Wilson in the women's race. The men competing are: Christo, Dunham, Flerchinger, Singleton, Samuel Elliot, Andrew Ferris, Zach Hentschel, Cory Stone and Anders Watt.

"The course is supposed to be pretty fast and the weather looks good," said Johnson. "It'll be fun to see everyone open up and get after it this meet."