Results
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Minnesota State University Moorhead junior Josh Young made school history with his 33rd-place finish  at the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships this Saturday in Evansville, Ind. That effort has earned Young his first cross country All-American honors, his third overall All-American honor, and is the first male All-American finish for MSUM cross country at the Division II level since the school switched to that level in 1995.

The last time a MSUM had a male All-American in cross country at the D2 level was in 1968 when Clint Chamberlain ran up from NAIA. Since then, this is the first male All-American since 1992 when the Dragons had three at the NAIA championships and is the first since MSUM made the official jump from NAIA to DII in 1995.

"Overall I'm very satisified with how the race turned out," Young said. "I'm looking forward to next year's championship where I'll hopefully qualify with the team."

Young has also garnered All-American honors in the mile during the 2016-17 indoor track season and in the 1,500 meter during the 2017 outdoor season.

"Josh works consistently at doing everything possible to maximize his potential," MSUM head track and field/cross country coach Ryan Milner said. "I'm incredibly happy that today he was able to see his hard work pay off and that he'll be returning home with his first All-American honor in cross country."

The 10K race went out quick, but Young stayed in control and passed the first 1K mark in 138th place.  He would continue to run even, and made a big jump at the 3k mark, moving up to 95th place. From there on out, Young would pick off an average of 10 runners every kilometer. All-American honors came into range for young at the 8.1K when he moved into the top 50 for the first time in the race. With only a kilometer to go, young had moved into 42nd, just two spots outside an All-American finish.

"Coach and I talked pre-race about me getting out a little quicker than I usually do, and establish decent positioning early," Young said. "The race went out quick, but I managed to get out in the middle of the pack. From tehre I worked on picking off runners one at a time. About 6K in I started to hurt, but hearing that I was 20 places out of finishing All-American really helped me stay focused and push through the pain. I got to the 9K mark and knew that I was a few places out of reaching my goal of becoming All-American. I also knew that everyone close to me had the same goal and they wanted the same thing I did. So I really focused up one last surge and tried to use my mile speed to my advantage."

Young finished his last kilometer in 2:48, passing nine more runners, to finish 33rd in a time of 31:48. Only five runners closed the last kilometer in a faster split than Young.

This brings a close to the 2017 MSUM Dragon cross country season, Young and the rest of his distance teammates will resume action this indoor track season. Dragon track kicks off Dec. 8^. at the Dakota Classic hosted by North Dakota State University.