A Monday Cross Country Round-Up

Let's start the week off by clearing the desk of all the accumulated cross country news:

Mankato Advances ... The #13-ranked Minnesota State - Mankato men's squad finished a nationals-qualifying 3rd at the NCAA Division II Central Region meet in Kearney, Nebraska on Saturday.

Junior James Krajsa, who ran the 10,000m course in 31:32.70, led the team with a 9th-pace finish. Sophomore Denise Mokaya was 20th in 32.29.06. Also scoring for the Mavericks were freshman Dana Schmidt, 22nd at 32:36.01, senior Chris Janiszeski, 23rd at 32:40.36, and senior Jesse Merkel, 34th at 33:07.61.

Mankato was the only Minnesota men's squad to advance.

Full men's results are HERE.

UMD Qualifies ... The #14-ranked Univeristy of Minnesota - Duluth women earned a trip to the NCAA Division II National Championship in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania with a 4th-place finish at the Central Regional.

Freshman Morgan Place, the winner of six of her seven races as a collegian, was the top Bulldog, running the 6K course in a20:28.6 for 4th-place overall. Senior Liz Palkie, an individual qualifier for nationals one year ago, was five spots back in 21:10.2, while the sophomore trio of Bridget Hines, 24th in 22:00, Whitney Hines, 42nd place in 22:26.5, and Rachael Stack, 50th in 22:32. 7, rounded out the UMD scoring.

Full women's results are HERE.

Collegeville Men Win XC Circuit ... The Collegeville Track Club won the 2008 USA Tack and Field - Minnesota Cross Country Circuit with a narrow 25-32 win at Saturday's USATF-Minnesota Cross Country Championships in Apple Valley.

The Collegevillians, who won the two opening event of the six-race series, suffered three-straight defeats to rivals Run N Fun in the races leading up to Saturday's championship. RNF led the standings by a single point when starting gun fired for the double-point-value championship race.

The 1-2-6-7-9 finish of Collegeville's Chris Erichsen, Peder Arneson, Aaron Beaber, John Maresh, and Tom Myers tipped the 3-4-5-8-12 finish of RNF's Jason Finch, Ed Whetham, Kelly Mortenson, Patrick Parish, and Paul Kriegler and earned Collegeville the season-long title.

The Run N Fun women handily won the USATF-Mn championship 18-63 over Collegeville and easily won the Cross Country Circuit title.

Full results of the meet, which also served as Minnesota's Junior Olympic Championships, are HERE.

MIAC Honors Its Best ... Last week the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference named it's top coaches and athletes. Bethel swept the women's awards with two-time MIAC champ Marie Borner earning Athlete of the Year honors and coach Jim Timp earning coach of the Year accolades. Timp's Royals finished runner-up to St. Thomas at the meet.

Find all the MIAC women's award-winners HERE.

St. Olaf earned both of the men's awards. MIAC champ Duboul Ruon was named Athlete of the Year, while first-year Ole coach Phil Lundin earned Coach of the Year honors. The St. Olaf men won the MIAC team title.

Find the MIAC men's award-winners HERE.