STURGIS, S.D. - Black Hills State men's and women's cross country competed at the Gage McSpadden Memorial on Saturday night from Fort Meade, with the men reigning in a first-place team finish in the 6k race while the women only fell short two seconds for second in their 4k.
 
MEN
The Yellow Jacket men ran a total time of 1:36:24 to secure first place with 23 points, led by first and second place finishes from Tim Brown (18:59.8) and Hayden Grosz (19:04.5). Marcos Valerio (12:18.7) joined his teammates in the top-five with his fifth place run in Sturgis.
 
Lincoln Fleischman (19:28.8), Justyn France (19:33.1), and Jaxon Straus (19:39.6) all finished in seventh, eighth, and ninth while Turner Christians (19:43.7) clocked out in 12^th. 
 
Aydan Loya (19:45.2) and David Standish (19:49.0) were the next Yellow Jacket men to cross the finish line with 14^th and 15^th place, respectively,, while Addison Red Fox (20:11.8) turned in at 18th. 
 
In the men's final standings, South Dakota Mines (1:37:38) landed in second with 41 points while MSU Billings (1:43:15) and Chadron State (1:51:10) rounded out the field in third and fourth.
 
WOMEN
Falling short by a mere two seconds, the Yellow Jacket women turned in a second-place finish at the Gage McSpadden Memorial with 29 points. Both the Hardrockers and Yellow Jackets averaged 15:54 in the women's 4k.
 
Leading the way for the lady Yellow Jackets was Sylvia Brown, who was the first runner to cross the finish line with a 14:52.8 4k run.
 
Katie Turpin (15:59.7) turned in another top-five Yellow Jacket finisher with her fifth-place run while freshman Katelyn Krieger (16:10.7) landed sixth. Rounding out the top ten runners was freshman Sierra Hopp (16:12.5) and Evie Boyd (16:18.2) in eighth and tenth, respectively.
 
South Dakota Mines crept into first place with a 1:19.31 time and 26 points while Chadron State (1:25:06) and MSU Billings (1:25:15) finished in third and fourth with 88 points each. The Eagles were slightly quicker, finishing nine seconds before the MSUB Yellowjackets and held an average time that was two seconds quicker than MSUB.
 
Up Next
BHSU cross country returns from a two-week break on Friday, Sept. 22 for the Roy Griak Invitational at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.