Men’s Cross-Country
The North Dakota State men’s cross-country team placed 10th on Friday at the Roy Griak Invitational at Les Bolstad Golf Course in Falcon Heights, MN. They improved four places in the team standings and took off more than 70 points from last season’s Griak.
Senior Hunter Klimek led the Bison to 12th place overall. He crossed the finish line at 25:22.9 for the eight-kilometer race, the highest finish by an NDSU runner at the Griak in the program’s Division I era.
Following Klimek, redshirt freshman Ethan Moe crossed the line in 60th place with a time of 26:10.2. Senior Tyson Mahar (73rd, 26:26.8), sophomore Regan Bosch (79th, 26:30.1), and sophomore Will Gerber (80th, 26:30.6) completed the scoring for NDSU, all finishing within seconds of each other. Junior Jacob Knodle also finished in the top 100, getting 93rd in 26:40.9.
The Herd ended with 287 points in 10th place out of 17 teams, with Wyoming taking the men’s team title and Utah Valley taking the individual title. Mohamed Guled took first place with a time of 24:55.3. Navy and Minnesota took second and third place, respectively.
Women’s Cross-Country
North Dakota State’s Reagan Baesler had an outstanding performance at the Griak on Friday morning, securing a fourth-place finish out of more than 200 runners in the women’s six-kilometer race and leading the Bison to a 10th-place team finish.
Baesler completed the race in 21:35.7. Her performance is one of the best in NDSU’s Division I history at the Griak, with only Kelby Anderson’s third-place finish in 2018 ranking higher.
Behind Baesler, sophomore Grace Link finished 55th with a time of 22:57.0. Freshmen Reagan Berg and Jenna DeBates were close behind, finishing 70th and 71st, with times of 23:10.6 and 23:11.8. Bison junior Aleah Miller rounded out the top five for NDSU, crossing the line in 23:35.7 to secure 97th place. Additionally, Kate LeBlanc finished just outside the top 100 in 23:40.6 for 100th place.
The Bison women’s cross-country team earned 10th place in the team standings with 265 points, making them the top Summit League team at the event and showing improvement from last year’s 12th-place finish. Minnesota took first place for both the team and individual titles. Minnesota’s Ali Weimer came in first, clocking in at 21:08.5.
Next up for the Bison is the SDSU Classic, which will take place in Brookings, South Dakota, on Oct. 4.