Hoffman places 4th at Herb Blakely Invitational
A wet and rainy start to the men's 8k at the Herb Blakely Invitational.
It was a rainy day last Saturday in Madison. Despite the weather, the Dakota State Trojans competed in the Herb Blakely Cross Country Invitational at the Madison Country Club.
The women’s races were held first. There were 62 runners that ran the 5K course. Mount Marty had a great race having four competitors finish in the top five. This helped them win the team title with 25 points. One of those runners was Katie Smelker, who won the race with a time of 18 minutes and 38 seconds. For Dakota State, Kayla Sveen placed 40th with a time of 23:10.61 and Anastasia Gentles placed 54th finishing the course with a time of 24:29.44.
After the completion of the women’s race, the men’s 8K was set to start. A total of 74 runners finished the race in the pouring rain. Redshirted Senior Michael Hoffman led the whole race, but got passed in the final moments before crossing the finish line. Hoffman finished 4th and ran the hilly course in a time of 26:39. DSU’sMichael Carson placed 33rd with a time of 28:40 and Caleb Hemphill was 54th with a time of 30:39. Skyler Giddings of Northwestern ran a time of 26:34 which helped his team win the title with 22 points.
The Trojans will have a couple weeks to train before traveling to St. Paul, Minnesota for the Roy Griak invitational.
