Lopers.com
The Nebraska-Kearney cross country teams placed fourth (men) and 19th (women) at the annual Missouri Southern Stampede Saturday morning in Joplin.
This was UNK’s first race of the fall after an intrasquad “Time Trial” back on August 31.
The Loper men came in ranked fifth in the Central Region and should move up after a stellar showing on a very humid day. Kearney tallied 168 points to place ahead of 18th-ranked West Texas A&M (188) and just behind Division I Tulsa (59), No. 20 MSSU (71) and No. 17 Sioux Falls (191).
Besides WT, UNK placed ahead of 22 other squads including 20 from the Division II ranks. The top seven Lopers all finished in the top 71 with the field consisting of 277 runners.
DeWeese junior Corbin Hansen led the way with an ninth place finish (eight team points) by running the 8k course in 25:22.4. Washburn junior Jacob Klemz paced the field in 24:45.4.
Not too far behind Hansen was Juniata freshman Justin Vrooman (29th place & 27 points; 26:03) and Scottsbluff junior Shane Burkey (34th place & 30 points; 26:09.8). Finally, three Lopers scored between 50-58 points led by Stanton redshirt freshman Trenton Cadwallader (26:47.6).
The Loper women, minus two of its top runners, scored 513 points to place 19th in a field of 34. They came in ahead of, among others, five MIAA rivals, three GAC (Great American Conference) members and three schools from the Heartland Conference. Division I Tulsa (33) easily came in first with D1 Missouri State the runner up (140) and No. 21 Oklahoma Baptist third (160).
Merna junior Elizabeth Cramer was the top UNK finisher, running the 5k course in 19:16.2 to be 69th in a field of 323. She tallied 66 points with Comstock sophomore Zoe Ritz tallying 73 after turning in a 19:21.0. Omaha freshman Emily Robles was the third UNK runner to come in (115th pace & 109 points; 19:41.0).
Tulsa had the top two finishers in Reagan Hausmann (17:26.5) and Caitlin Klopfer (17.33.0). Drury’s Claire McCune was third and the top D2 finisher (17:34.6).
UNK runs again in two weeks at the annual Rim Rock Classic at Kansas.
