Houston and Klimek win Peak Performance honors

Helping their respective squads to team titles earned the Bison duo of Kaleesa Houston and Hunter Klimek this week’s Summit League Cross Country Peak Performer of the Week honors, league officials announced Tuesday. It was both Houston’s and Klimek’s first weekly honor.

Houston led the Bison women at the Dragon Twilight, earning the individual title. She finished the 4k in a personal-best time of 13:19.1, to claim the first cross country race of her collegiate career. It was the second straight meet that the Bison women swept both the individual and team titles.

Klimek took runner-up honors at the Dragon Twilight to pace the Bison men to five of the top six spots at the meet. He clocked a 6k time of 17:55.4 to help secure NDSU’s second consecutive meet title.

Missouri Valley Football continues to dominate FCS polls

The Missouri Valley Football Conference has three of the nation’s top-5 ranked schools, including North Dakota State (1), South Dakota State (2), and Missouri State (5).  North Dakota (Stats Perform) and Youngstown State (AFCA) both entered the Top 25 in those polls this week.

NDSU (1), SDSU (2), and Missouri State (5) represent the Conference in the Top 5 of the Stats Perform Top 25 poll.  Before this year the league last had 3 teams in the Top 5 on March 8, 2021, when UND (3), UNI (4) and NDSU (5) represented the league.

Soccer’s Heely named Defensive Peak Performer

North Dakota State soccer’s Ashleigh Heely has been named the TicketSmarter Summit League Women’s Soccer Defensive Peak Performer of the Week, announced league officials on Monday.

Heely anchored the back line of both shutout victories last week as the Bison defeated Green Bay and Drake in a pair of 1-0 games. Heely played all 90 minutes in both games at center back and led the Bison defense that allowed just seven total shots on goal over 180 minutes.

The Torrance, California native also nearly scored off of a corner kick for the Bison in the win over Drake, as her effort was cleared off the line by a Drake defender.

Heely has played all 720 minutes for the Bison this season and has helped NDSU to four shutouts in the first eight games.

The honor is Heely’s first and is also the first for the Bison since the final week of the regular season last year when Aly Cole received Defensive Player of the Week honors.