ASHLAND, Neb. – "A perfect day!"

College of Saint Mary Cross Country Coach Derek Fey had a lot to be stressed about this week leading up to CSM's first attempt at co-hosting a very large meet. But Fey said Saturday couldn't have gone any better.

The Flames co-hosted the Blazing Tiger NAIA Classic with Doane University Saturday. The event was held at Mahoney State Park.

"We hosted a gigantic meet with many nationally ranked teams and it went extremely smooth," Fey said. "Just a perfect day."

College of Idaho won the team competition with 44 team points. University of Saint Mary took second with 57 and Taylor was third with 75. College of Saint Mary placed 11^th out of 23 teams with 351 points.

Ellyse Tingelstad from the College of Idaho won the race in a time of 20:52.0.

Chloe Inhelder was CSM's top finisher with a time of 23:21.4 for 53^rd place individually.

Other times for the Flames were: Lorena Ramirez 23:58.6; Brooke Wigdahl 24:01.7; Corinne Mead 24:41.9; Autumn Simons 24:56.8; Mira Fosmer 25:13.8; Kiley Craft 25:15.4; Yenifer Juan 25:29.5; Jocelyn Farhar 25:32.6; Natalie Briggs 25:53.7; Ella Miller 26:43.8; Madeline Krause 27:39.3; Peyton Bell 27:46.6; Kaitlyn Thalman 30:04.2; Alivia Austin 31:06.6; Emma Lee 35:50.1; Kira Hagan 40:28.1.

"It was an absolutely perfect day all-around for us," Fey said. "I'm so extremely proud of this group. We were one point away from Hastings who was receiving votes recently. We had never beaten Morningside in our program's history and we beat them by a point.

"And we still can improve on several areas – that's the exciting part."

The Flames are off until Nov. 4 when they compete in the GPAC Championships in North Sioux City, S.D.