Michigan Tech Cross Country Places in Top Half at NCAA Midwest Regionals
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The Michigan Tech men's and women's cross country teams both placed in the top half of the standings at the NCAA Division II Midwest Regionals on Saturday. The Tech women turned in a 12th place finish out of 32 teams while the men landed in 13th out of a 31 team field.
"Our women's team really ran well and I can't say enough about how hard they ran," Tech Head Coach Joe Haggenmiller said. "Emily Byrd and Emily Vigil both had personal best times and it was exciting to see them running that well. It was great to see our top five average time of 22:21.93 and it was an awesome job by our team to post those times. All seven of our runners on the women's team set personal best times so we couldn't ask for any more out of them. They really competed and represented the Huskies well and we are proud of both the men's and women's teams."
Emily Byrd led the charge for the Tech women by placing 43rd in the field of 220 runners after clocking a time of 21:59.06 on the 6k course. Emily Vigil finished 47th overall and second in the Tech standings thanks to a time of 22:03.73. She was followed by Sophia Farquhar who landed in 52nd place overall and third best on the team with a time of 22:11.67. Robyn Holmes was 78th in the standings after posting a time of 22:42.77 while Sonja Hedblom rounded out the top five for the Huskies with a time of 22:52.44, finishing in 82nd place overall. Amanda Kautzer (23:25.80, 118th) and Julia Manzano (23:45.96 137th) had the sixth and seventh best times for Tech Saturday. The Huskies final team score was 300.
Grand Valley State claimed the championship on the women's side with a team score of 43 followed by Cedarville with a score of 103. Jessica Reeves of Southern Indiana won the individual title with a time of 20:08.90.
"Our men's team left it all out on the course today and I'm really proud of them," Haggenmiller said. "We went out hard and took some big risks early in the race and as a team paid the price a bit in the latter half of the race. We took some risks and instead of being in the high single digits we were 13th. However, I'm really proud of the effort they put in and the risks they took and chances they took to see if they could have a really special day."
Jason Saliga led the men's team with a time of 32:01.52 and placed 54th overall in the field of 219 total runners on the 10k course Saturday morning. Kyle Hanson wasn't far behind and logged a 71st place finish with a time of 32:21.63, the second best team time for the Huskies. Matt Pahl clocked a time of 32:46.07 and was 89th overall while Chad Pollock crossed the line with a time of 33:01.31 and finished 99th in the individual standings. Daniel Kulas rounded out the top five for Tech by covering the course in 33:12.22, good for 107th in the overall standings. Brendan Klynstra (33:26.98 120th) and Grant Brown (33:34.14 126th) had the sixth and seventh best times for the Tech men Saturday. The team score for the men was 418.
Grand Valley State University won the team championship thanks to a score of 45 followed by Southern Indiana with a score of 99. The individual champion was James Ngandu of Tiffin who ran a 30:13.24 to edge out Nick Hall of Ashland who placed second with a time of 30:23.03.
Saturday's Midwest Regional meet was a solid finish to the 2016 season for both the men's and women's teams.