Upperclassmen lead CSC pack at Roy Griak meet

For the third consecutive meet, upperclassmen led both the Chadron State men’s and women’s cross country teams to the finish line. Eagles competed at the prestigious Roy Griak Cross Country Meet hosted by the University of Minnesota, on the Les Bolstad Golf Course in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, Saturday.
Alejandro Garcia, graduate student of Pine Bluffs, Wyoming, completed the muddy 8k course in 26 minutes, 54 seconds earning 17th of 453 finishers. After falling over another runner in the beginning of the race, Dylan Stansbury, senior of Crawford, closely followed Garcia finishing in 27:02.
“I knew I had to start out pretty fast because it was a really big race. A runner fell in front of me and it caused me to fall,” Stansbury said. “I got my head back into the race and just focused on passing a lot of runners.”
Stansbury gained about 200 places after taking the fall to finish in 22nd place.
Other Eagle men who put up points for the team score were Riley Howard, freshman of Anchorage, Alaska; Phillip Duncan, junior of Chadron; Eric Yager, junior of Hot Springs, South Dakota, placing 75th, 119th, and 120th, respectively. The men scored 353 points placing them 18th of 40 teams in the men’s Maroon II (Division II) race.
Kevin Tree, senior of Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, earned the men’s Maroon II individual title finishing the course in 25:57. Augustana University, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, claimed the men’s team title with 88 points.
On the women’s side, Margaret Vinton, senior of North Platte, covered the 6k course in 25:39 for 121st place of 392 finishers. Freshmen Kiya Passero, of Chadron; Vanessa Sawyers, of Hot Springs, South Dakota; and Savannah Silbaugh, of Upton, Wyoming, trailed Vinton in 144th place, 176th place, and 192nd place, respectively. Finishing in 194th place, Taylor Allison, junior of Gordon, was the final runner to add to the women’s final team score of 827 points, putting the women 28th of 40 teams in the women’s Maroon II (Division II) race.
“Griak was definitely tough for us because we’re a young team and most of our girls have never run in such a big meet on such a tough course,” Vinton said. “Now we know what aspects of our races need to be worked on.”
The individual winner of the women’s Maroon II race was Alexis Zeis, junior of the University of Mary, Bismark, North Dakota, completing the course in 22:10. Zeis led the University of Mary to the team title with 93 points.
The teams are set to travel to Victoria, Kansas, for the Fort Hays State University Tiger Open Oct. 8.