Rabbit Roundup: Regionals in the Rearview
The Jackrabbit women finished 13th today, while the men placed 8th. Leah Hansen and Ben Olson were the top finishers for each team.
It seems to be an annual tradition now that the teams of South Dakota State outperform expectations on the cross country course. Coming off a year with no regional meets, it was challenging to rank teams heading into this weekend, knowing many hadn’t faced one another since the fall of 2019. The Jackrabbit men were seeded at #10 while the women sat at #12, per the USTFCCCA Regional Rankings.
For the men, this felt all too familiar. The winners of six consecutive Summit League Championships, the Jackrabbits were once again looked over for BIG10 universities, but also fellow mid-major programs such as Drake and Bradley. Sure, the roster had lost big names such as Kyle Burdick and Chase Cayo, but this was a team built on depth.
That depth quickly showed when the gun went off. Results were all over the board through the first 4km. Poor conditions in Iowa City meant the race was slower than normal, leading to a huge pack of runners early on. The Jackrabbits were continually between 8th and 10th as a team through the various kilometer checkpoints but with such congested running, results didn’t mean much.
At the halfway mark, all seven Jackrabbits were within 11 seconds of one another. Joe Minor-Williams was the top runner, sitting 38th overall. The scoring five were all in the top 60, putting them 9th as a team. The team results had been a constant battle between Eastern Illinois, Drake, Bradley, Missouri, and SDSU for the 6–10th positions. The next couple of kilometers would be crucial in deciding how things would ultimately shakeout.
Each checkpoint through 9km, the Jackrabbit men held the 7th position as a team. They faded just enough over the final kilometer, ultimately finishing in 8th. Eastern Illinois was 6th with 235 points, Drake in 7th with 236, and SDSU 8th with 238.
It’s easy to say that if this race was run 100 times, the Jackrabbit men would certainly finish 6th plenty of times. The Jackrabbits also were the deepest of these three teams. When scoring only the fourth and fifth runners for each team, Eatern Illinois totals 148 points, Drake scores 157, and SDSU only 116. The other two programs benefited from strong front runners, with both programs placing at least one runner in the top 20.
The full results can be found here, but those only tell part of the story.
Ben Olson, Daniel Burkhalter, and Mason McDonald all made their regional debuts. Joe Minor-Williams, Gabe Peters, Max Selbach, and Tom Breuckman all had their second highest regional finishes. This wasn’t a perfect result by any means, but does bode well for the future.
The women of South Dakota State seemed to have something to prove this season. Last spring, they dominated the only March occurence of the Summit League XC Championships. The pandemic had forced the conference meet into the spring, a move the Jackrabbits paid little mind to. Like many of the events that have taken place since the pandemic, some might mark this victory with an asterisk. It came during track season, without the highly-touted University of South Dakota women competing. Was a 22 point victory not enough to establish the Jacks as legitimate?
Call it passion, determination, maybe even… revenge? The women came into this fall with something to prove, and prove it they did.
Four separate times the Jackrabbits faced off against North Dakota State (NDSU) and South Dakota (USD) this season; Roy Griak, Bradley Pink Classic, Summit League Championships, Midwest XC Regionals. Each time the Jackrabbits came out on top. Prove it they did, over and over again. This team was, and is, for real.
Today was no exception. The Jackrabbit women were ranked #12 in the region and finished 13th today. But results don’t paint the whole picture.
As with the men’s race, the women’s was slower than usual. The brutal conditions kept everyone together and made for moments of chaos during the race. One such moment involved Leah Hansen. The top Jackrabbit ended up losing her shoe roughly one mile into the race and would run the next 2.7 miles through cold, muddy conditions, without it.
On paper, things were looking rough at the start. The Jacks were sitting around 18th through the first two kilometers. By halfway, they had moved up to 14th, with Hansen leading the way in 12th. There were four Jackrabbits between 68th and 79th, and the seven women had improved a total of 63 positions between the 2km and 3km marks.
Over the next 400 meters, the Jackrabbits took over 13th place and would hold it for the remainder of the race. Sure, it was one place lower than their ranking, but context matters.
SDSU ended up with 365 points. Kansas was 12th with 352, Loyola 11th with 347, and Bradley 10th with 341. Based on previous meet results, it’s fair to guess Hansen would have finished around 10th had her shoe stayed on. She had beaten both Ashley Tutt (finished 9th) and Dana Freyen (finished 14th) this season. If Hansen finishes 10th, SDSU ends with 355, Kansas moves to 353, Loyola to 348, and Bradley to 342.
In short, they’re right in the mix for 10th.
Ignoring hypotheticals, SDSU still had a great day. This was the program’s highest regional finish since 2016, when they also placed 13th. Cailee Peterson and Jessica Cristoffer improved 25 and 21 places on their previous best regional finishes. Anna Donnay had her second highest regional finish. Caitlin Bright, Bailey Dergan, and Claire Beckman all were making their regional debuts.
It’s always easy to want more, especially when the result was so close. On a day where some things went wrong and others went right, the SDSU women closed out their “prove it” season by, well, proving it.
In a year full of plenty of unknowns, it seemed almost certain the South Dakota State cross country teams would find a way in the fall. The program the Rod Dehaven has built in Brookings continues to prosper. Neither team will see athletes move on to the national stage but despite that, there are plenty of positives to take away from this regional meet.
As they say in Brookings, “lay the pipe”.
Full results can be found here.
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