Both NDSU cross country teams fall short
Saturday, the NDSU men’s and women’s cross country team traveled to Fort Wayne, Ind. for the Division I Independent Championships.
Conditions on the field for the runners were wet and sloppy throughout the whole day.
Despite a strong finish by all of their runners, the Bison men ended three points short of champion California Davis, and finished second in the team standings.
Junior Greg Liebl, bidding for his first Independent Championship, finished second individually with a time of 25:30.2 behind Cal Davis senior Chris Ferren-Cirino, who finished with a time of 25:19.3.
Also placing in the top 10 for the Bison, were Jake Januszewski in fourth, James Schanandore in seventh and Chad Bergan in ninth to round out the top ten. Despite their shortcomings, NDSU coach Ryun Godfrey was impressed with his teams overall effort.
“ The men’s team did really well despite receiving second, you can’t predict how well UC Davis is going to run,” Godfrey said.
On the women’s side, Nora Narloch placed in the highest position for the Bison in fourth-place with a time of 22:33.6.
Veronica Nagel also finished in the top 10 with a tenth-place finish. As a team, the women ended with a fifth place finish.
For the second year in a row, SDSU’s Becky Mansheim took the individual crown with a time of 22:5.9.
“ We were all a little disappointed that we lost, but we left it all on the course today,” Godfrey said of both teams.
This was the last time NDSU will participate in the Independent Championships as they begin competing in the Mid-Continent Conference next season.
Both teams will finish their season Nov. 19 at the USATF West Region Championships.