Bison Cross Country Finish out Season in Springfield

NDSU’s cross country season closed out for the men and women Friday at the NCAA Midwest Regional in Springfield, Mo. The women finished a school high seventh place at the meet while the men placed 26th.

For the women, it was a very close team race. As a team, the Bison were only behind the sixth and fifth place teams by less than 15 points. NDSU was led by redshirt freshman Brecca Wahlund, who finished in 14th place among 211 runners with a time of 21:06.60 on a six-kilometer course. Wahlund was second among all freshmen.

Juniors Heidi Peterson and Maddie McClellan were NDSU’s second and third best finishers, respectively. Peterson clocked out at 21:46.20 for 36th place and McClellan finished just over nine seconds later, finishing in 21:55.25 for 46th. Sophomore Abbi Aspengren ended her run in 52nd place with a time of 21:59.57. To cap the race off for NDSU, freshman Tarin Lachowitzer finished at 22:38.49, which was good enough to be in the top half at 90th. For the Bison in the team category, the women took seventh place as a team, which was their best finish in the Division I era.

For the men, NDSU took a 26th place finish as a team to complete their season. Freshman Bryon Schuldt was the first Bison finisher on the 10K course at 32:45.29. Schuldt finished 94th overall out of 190 runners. Sophomore Brett Kelly was the second Bison finisher, who ended his run with a time of 33:16.02 for 120th place.

Redshirt freshman Brendan Skime came in 23 seconds later at 33:39.57, giving him 136th place. Sophomore Lucas DeGree followed Skime and took 162nd in 34:27.19.

To round things up for the Bison, sophomore Grady Anderson got 166th place at 34:39.59. In the team category, the men’s Bison team was 586 points off of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State’s first place finish.