WAYNE, NE – University of Mary men's and women's cross country will enter the postseason competing at the NSIC Championships on Friday, Oct. 24. The Wayne Country Club in Wayne, NE, will host the meet.
The 6k women's race will be at noon and the 8k men's race begins at 1:15 p.m.
Live results can be found here with a
live feed of the finish line here.
LAST TIME OUT
UMary hosted the Marauders Open to conclude the regular season on Oct. 10. The men's team won the meet, propelled by
Caleb Hansen's first career victory.
Nick Lind (2
nd),
Raine Skjod (4
th),
Luke Bartunek (8
th), and
Zacarias Troutman (9
th) all followed with top-10 finishes.
Tori Stepka led the women's team to a victory with a PR of 22:14.3, finishing second.
Hannah Westin (6
th),
Amber Rosemeier (8
th),
Ellyn Engels (9
th), and
Giselle Jahner (12
th) all helped the Marauders come out on top.
LAST TIME AT THE NSIC CHAMPIONSHIPS
After doubling their roster size last season, the UMary men's team placed 4
th at the NSIC Championships.
Caleb Hansen placed 5
th individually and was followed by
Andrew Scheer in 15
th and
Gideon Hammah in 19
th.
The women's team was the conference runner-up last season with
Alyssa Becker winning the individual title.
Kristine Kalthoff (3
rd) and
Andrijana Fundak (6
th) also had strong finishes, marking the first time UMary had three runners in the top-6 since 2019.
ATHLETE OF THE WEEK
Thanks to his 5
th place finish at the Jimmie Invitational,
Gideon Hammah was named the NSIC Men's Cross Country Athlete of the Week. The sophomore was the first Marauder since 2021 to receive the honor, doing so after his third consecutive top-5 finish to start the season.
ATHLETES TO WATCH
Sophomore
Gideon Hammah was named UMary's NSIC Athlete to Watch after an impressive freshman campaign. Hammah won the Marauders Open and placed 19
th at the NSIC Championships last year.
On the women's side,
Tori Stepka was named UMary's NSIC Athlete to Watch. Stepka spent her first season with the Marauders recovering from an injury and has never competed in cross country before. Head coach
Chris Lessard is confident in her development over the course of last season.
PRESEASON POLLS
The men's team was picked to finish 3
rd in the NSIC in the preseason coaches' poll. That is the best preseason position for UMary since 2022.
The women's team was also picked 3
rd in the NSIC preseason coaches' poll. The team also came in at 29
th in FloTrack's National Preseason Rankings and 16
th in the USTFCCCA's rankings.
#marauders#
