BILLINGS, Mont. --- The South Dakota School of Mines men's cross country team was back in action Friday morning as the Hardrockers traveled over to Montana to compete in the West Regional Preview Meet hosted by MSU Billings.
Along with the Yellowjackets and Hardrockers, Black Hills State and Dawson Community College also competed. The Hardrocker men finished the men's 10K race in second place.

Black Hills State finished first in the team standings with 16 points while SD Mines earned second place, posting 55 points. MSUB was a close third tallying 58 and Dawson Community College secured fourth with 120 points.

BHSU finished 1-4 on the men's side as Yellow Jacket Jonah Theisen won the individual title in a time of 32 minutes 29.36 seconds, while teammate Keith Osowski was second (32:43.51) and Jordan Theisen took third (32:51.95).

SD Mines top runners all crossed the finish line in a nice, tight pack with freshman Ryan Moen leading the way, coming in ninth place in a time of 33:46.27; sophomore Chase Wood was right behind in 10^th place posting a time of 33:52.10; and freshman Anders Watt was a spot back in 11^th with a 34:03.13.

Hardrocker sophomore Joel Haas kept pace with the SD Mines front runners and cross the finish line in 13^th place with a mark of 34:05.78; and junior Aidan Anderson clocked a 34:45.73 for 17^th place; freshman Nick Shipe secured 19^th position (34:51.29); and freshman Max Oesterling took 21^st place (35:07.34).

As for the rest of the 'Rocker men: junior Theron Singleton finished 23^rd (35:16.45); freshman Brock Rugg grabbed 24^th (35:22.05); freshman Mark Boden came in 28^th (36:06.75); junior Ben Colvin finished 29^th (36:14.37); freshman Zach Anderson was 30^th (36:15.09); freshman Isaac Orozco took 33^rd (37:49.90); freshman David Bolt secured 34^th (38:01.85);  and sophomore Tim Myers crossed in 35^th place (30:09.94).

"The men put together one of our strongest team performances of the season with their first sub 60-second pack time. We need to be able to cover the mid-race surge a little better, but we still held on well. We did a great job matching up against MSU-Billings today," said Hardrocker men's cross country head coach Steve Johnson.

"Going forward we have to continue to work on the second half of our race for both the men and women, but we're in a good spot for this point in the season. This gives us a good jumping off point as we move into the conference and region," Johnson said. 

SD Mines will compete next weekend in Denver, Colorado, in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships.