SIOUX FALLS, SD – The University of Mary women's cross country team won their first Northern Sun team championship in dominating fashion as five of the first 13 runners to cross the finish line wore the Blue & Orange. The 3
rd ranked Marauders posted 33 team points, well ahead of 5
th ranked University of Minnesota Duluth's 47 points.
Lexi Zeis and
Ida Narbuvoll finished 2-3 in the 6,000 meter race held at the Yankton Trails Park.
Kate Fox placed seventh,
Kaycie Stewart eighth and
Jaiden Schuette 13
th. Zeis, Narbuvoll, Fox and Stewart earned all-NSIC first team honors and Schuette is a second team selection.
Besides the team hardware, the Marauders also return home with some individual recognition. Mary head coach
Dennis Newell is the NSIC Coach of the Year for the second time in his career. Narbuvoll, a sophomore from Norway and a transfer from Edinboro, is the NSIC Newcomer of the Year.
'Today our women continued to persevere over the competition that has challenged their team all season," said Newell. "With any team effort, we had ups and downs through the 12 women that ran the course for us today. However, I am convinced that the reason we achieved our team goal is because of the strength of the team's commitment to each other.
"This group of women gave everything they had emotionally, psychologically and physically today. Everyone did their job to the best of their ability. Preparation was flawless and execution was near perfect. We have more challenges ahead of us and we can still race significantly better moving forward individually and as a whole."
For the first time since 2014, Zeis didn't cross the finish line first. While the defending national and Northern Sun champion had her seven-race winning streak snapped, she once again paced the Marauders to the championship. The junior from Bismarck, ND, was less than four seconds off the winning pace. Zeis checked in with a clocking of 19:54.68, just behind UMD's Emilee Trost's title time of 19:51.37. It was the first time in three outings this season that Trost managed to finish ahead of Zeis.
Narbuvoll, an NCAA Division II All-American last year at Edinboro, finished a strong third. Her time of 20:01.74 was over 13 seconds faster than the fourth place finisher.
Fox and Stewart placed 7-8, respectively. Fox, a freshman, registered a time of 20:55.02 with Stewart, a junior, finishing in 21.05.70.
Rounding out the scoring for the Marauders was Schuette, who claimed 13
th in 21:22.72.
The Marauders and the Bulldogs ran away with the competition as the two schools combined to place nine of the top 15 runners.
Mary also had two other runners in the top 26.
Rebekkah Bond, who joined Narbuvoll in transferring to Mary from Edinboro, placed 24
th (22:01.12). Freshman Emma Halfdahl claimed 26
th in 22:09.19.
The Marauders next compete at the NCAA Central Region championships on this same course in Sioux Falls, SD, on Nov. 5. A trip to the NCAA championships is at stake.
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