Cross Country | 11/4/2017 3:56:00 PM
Meet Results
KEARNEY, Neb. — Earning all-region honors and a trip to the NCAA Championships junior Josh Young placed fifth to lead the Minnesota State University Moorhead cross country teams at the Central Region Championships hosted by the University of Nebraska Kearney Saturday in Kearney, Neb. The men finished 12th while the women finished 21st at the meet.
Kathryn Sistrunk was the top female finisher for MSUM.
The course was more challenging than a majority of courses the Dragons have seen this year. It featured rolling undulating hills, tricky slanted slopes, and this year temperatures hovered a few degrees above freezing. Young covered the 10K course in 31:54.
"I was happy with how Josh executed his race," said MSUM head coach
Ryan Milner. "His goal was to return to nationals and he followed the race plan perfectly."
This will be Young's third trip to nationals. He was part of the qualifying teams in 2015 and 2016. This is his first time qualifying as an individual.
Overall, the Dragon men finished with 299 points in the the field of 27 teams. This was the first time five of the men have raced a 10K. Sophomore Nadir Yusuf and a trio of freshman made up the rest of the Dragon scorers. Yusuf was 42nd in 33:00.3, redshirt freshman Nick Marshall was 82nd, Drew Mears was right behind at 84th and Hunter Kjelhus placed 93rd. Freshman Alec Sanbeck and Devin Deringer placed 108th and 120th, respectively to round out the Dragon finishers.
In the women's race sophomore Kathryn Sistrunk led the women with her 71st-place place finish, taking the 6K in 23:18.5. Junior Marissa Carlson was 88th in 23:37.3, freshman Emily Hultin was 142nd, sophomore Whitney Welder was 151st, sophomore Samantha Swenson was 157th, and freshman Megan Kucera was 183rd.
"Overall it was good for our team to come out and get championship experience," said Milner.
The national meet will be held on Saturday, Nov. 18 in Evansville, Ill.
