Flames place third, show progress
SIOUX CENTER, Iowa – College of Saint Mary started its cross country season on a successful note, placing third among five teams at the Sunflower Open on Saturday hosted by Dordt University.
Dordt, ranked ninth in the nation, was the team champion with a near-perfect score of 16. In all, the Defenders recorded nine of the first 11 finishers.
Dakota State University was second with a score of 50, while CSM was third at 72, ahead of Northwestern College (120) and Trinity Bible College (N.D.) with 153. Dakota State and CSM were among those receiving votes in the national preseason poll.
A closer look at the numbers revealed considerable progress for the Flames, who held out returning national qualifier Carly Henderson. Sophomore Kara Muller led the way with a 13th-place finish in 19:41. Sophomore Josie Karnik was next among scorers in 22nd (20:15), followed by senior Kiley Craft (23rd, 20:17), sophomore Olivia Elbert (25th, 20:23) and junior Mira Fosmer (27th, 20:25). Other finishers for CSM were junior Yenifer Juan Jesus (30th, 20:30), senior Corinne Mead (32nd, 20:49), freshman Sarah Dickas (38th, 21:16), sophomore Becka Karnik (42nd, 21:37), junior Kaitlyn Thalman (54th, 23:03), junior Peyton Bell (55th, 23:07) and freshman Evie Kelly (64th, 25:32).
"When I was watching the race midway through, I didn't think we were sitting all that well,'' CSM Coach Derek Fey said. "Even at the end, I thought we might have underperformed.
"But after looking at the results, we ran a full minute faster than last year. We had four alltime PRs. We had a faster average time for one through five. And that doesn't include the fact that it was much hotter today and a few runners didn't have the best race.''
Indeed, Josie Karnik, Fosmer, Juan Jesus and Craft all recorded personal-best times in the warm conditions.
All in all, the Flames began their season on a good note and should continue to get better.
"I thought it was a great start to the season,'' Fey said. "Well ahead of where we were last year.''
CSM returns to action on Sept. 20 at the Greeno-Dirksen Invite in Lincoln, Neb.