CHADRON, Neb. --- The South Dakota Mines men's and women's cross country team swept the Chadron State Open Saturday morning winning both races as well as earning first in the individual standings in each event.

We've always had some good battles and some really strong performances at Chadron and today was no exception," said Hardrocker cross country head coach Steve Johnson.

In the women's 5K event, the Hardrockers posted 24 points,  placing five runners in the top 10. Taylor Bright won the individual crown, with a top time of 20:00.63 which was over nine second ahead of Tukker Romey of Chadron State (20:09.26).

Hardrocker Alyssa Franke finished in third place in a time of 20:16.93, Ryley Darnell posted a 20:24.44 to finish 5^th. 

Abbie saline earned seventh place (20:36.78), Adeline Wilson came in eighth place (20:46.21), Margaret Thompson took  11^th place (21:00.97), Hannah Denman was 13^th (23:13.61), Lillian Knudtson finished 14^th (23:30.24), and Samatha Smith came in 15^th place (29:06.28).

"On the women's side, we knew Chadron has some strong runners at the front and we wanted to be aggressive early. Taylor had fire in her eyes today and ran a terrific race. It was her first collegiate win and she looked great doing it," Johnson said. "The women saw big improvements over a year ago as well with Margaret, Alyssa and Taylor running two to three minutes faster than last year."
 
The SDM men tallied a team score of 21 points, taking four of the Top 5 spots. Hardrocker Tim Dunham ran away with the individual title, clocking a time of 25:43.12 while CSC's Jesse Jaramillo was a distant second with a 26:30.35.

South Dakota Mines Monty Christo finished in a time of 26:58.90 for third place, Brett Flerchinger clocked a 27:06.23 to come in fourth and Theron Singleton was fifth in a time of 27:13.14.

Ben Colvin earned seventh place (27:28.59), Cory Stone took eighth place (27:33.04), Anders Watt posted a 10th-place finish (28:06.45), Zach Hentschel took 13^th (28:26.92), and Hunter Prather came in 15^th place (28:41.55).

"The men set the tone for the race early with Tim taking a quick lead and the pack settling in close behind. We were hoping to work on some things we need to do at the RMAC meet in a few weeks and they did a good job getting out to a strong start and pushing the pace from the beginning," Johnson said. "We saw a number of guys improve on this course by one to two minutes. Theron, Brett and Monty really worked hard today and it showed in the results."
 
South Dakota Mines will next race on the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships on Oct. 24^th in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  
 
"Both teams look good today and hopefully this bodes well for us going into the RMAC meet," Johnson said.