Sioux Falls, SD – The University of Sioux Falls Men's and Women's Cross Country teams will hold their final practices this week before heading to Wayne, Nebraska for the NSIC Championships. The 2021 NSIC Cross Country Championships will be hosted by Wayne State College and take place on Saturday October 23^rd at Wayne Country Club.
 
The women's 6,000-meter race begins at 10 AM followed by the men's 8,000-meter race at 11:15 AM. The women's race will have 16 teams competing while 14 teams will run in the men's race. Fans can follow the action via social media (#NSICCC), via a finish line webstream or by live scoring. For more information about the NSIC Championships, click here. Admission to the championship is free.
 
The NCAA Cross Country Regional will take place in Joplin, Missouri on November 6^th with NSIC participants being determined by the results from Wayne, NE on Saturday.
 
USF Men's Cross Country Recap
After taking the team title in 2018, USF's Men's team claimed third place in 2019 on the back of a Mason Phillips second place finish. Now, after the 2020 season was canceled due to the pandemic, USF returns with a young core featuring two top-75 finishers from 2018. Aaron Voigt placed 59^th in 2018 while David Ecker took 73^rd.
 
This season the Cougars started the year at the Augustana Twilight where they placed 7^th as a team behind top-50 finishes from stand-out freshman Ben Morrison (21st, 20:24.06) and junior Jakob Hanna, (41st, 20:47.54).
 
At the SDSU Classic, the USF runners were challenged with a slate of DI competition but still managed to place four runners in the top-30. Morrison (13th, 26:02.00) and Hanna (20th, 26:19.30) again led the pack with Voigt (21st, 26:19.94) and Ecker (30th, 26:57.23) not far behind.
 
The Roy Griak featured four familiar faces in the top-53 with Voigt in 29^th (26:21.5), Morrison in 37^th (26:27.3), Ecker in 49^th (26:43.2), and Hanna in 53^rd (26:46.6). The Cougars were second among NSIC schools and 8^th overall among 27 teams and 374 runners.
 
On October 9^th USF sent partial squads to the Dordt Invite and Lewis Crossover. Voigt led the Cougars to 10^th place with his time of 25:22.00 that landed him in 20^th at the Lewis Crossover. At the Dordt Invite the men's team took 7^th place with three runners in the top-55, Justin Steffensmeier, 49th, 27:56.28; Seth Overholt, 52nd, 28:05.83; and Juan Castraneda, 54th, 28:10.83.
 
USF Women's Cross Country Recap
Following a 4^th place finish at the NSIC Championships in 2018, the USF Women's Cross Country team fell to eighth in 2019. Annika Aho will be the lone runner, from USF's 2019 top-five finishers, returning to the event for the Cougars after placing 60^th two years ago. While USF does not return may pieces from past years, the young core of this team is already shining as performances from certain freshman often highlighted the Cougars events.
 
USF opened the year with great performances from two freshmen at the Augustana Twilight. Morgan Gehl claimed ninth place in 18:42.51 while Khot Juac finished in 18:56.51 for 24^th place. Five others landed in the top-100 as the Cougars closed as the third best NSIC team and 6^th overall in the event.
 
The SDSU Classic featured multiple top-25 finishers despite the challenge of a full DI competition outside of USF. Gehl again led the Cougars with a top-10 finish by shaving 12 seconds from her time in the last meet and taking 8^th place. Juac improved her time as well and finished in 13^th with  18:54.33. Also in top-20 were junior Tianna Voigt (20th, 19:28.56), freshman Jessica Lutmer (23rd, 19:39.32) and the now junior Annika Aho (24th, 19:47.17).
 
Gehl continued her streak of top-10 finishes with an 8^th place spot at the Roy Griak (22:47.2). Her time was the third fastest ever by a USF Women's Cross Country runner. Juac once again held USF's second best time as she finished in 23:18.2 to hold 24^th place during USF's 10^th place landing spot.
 
USF sent partial squads to the Dordt invite and Lewis Crossover to close their regular season. The Cougars finished the Lewis Crossover in 17^th place where Gehl placed 32^nd in 23:09.4. At Dordt, USF rolled into 7^th place with top-50 finishes from Moriah Bullerman (43^rd, 20:35.76) and Gracie Bucher (48^th, 20:59.82).