Trojans Run Well in Home Opener

It was a beautiful, sunny day for the Herb Blakely Invitational in Madison. Both men’s and women’s teams were excited to start their season off right. A total of four teams competed against the Trojans and they were: the Mount Marty Lancers, Briar Cliff Chargers, and Trinity Bible Lions. Four runners from Dakota State placed in the top ten.

On the women’s side, Mount Marty achieved first place with 16 points, coming in second for team points was Briar Cliff with 58 points, and then DSU with 64 points claiming third place. Twenty-three runners ran in the women’s 5K race. The overall winner in the race was Kaylee Fly from Mount Marty, who ran the course in 19:24. For the Trojan women, freshman Kayla Sveen finished ninth with a time of 22:02. Tara Ronke came in 11th at 22:40. Summer Bronson established herself at 13th place with a time 23:03. Anastasia Asimakopoulos was 16th in 23:38. Amber Wiebenga finished it out for the women at 18th place in a time of 24:31.

For the men, Mount Marty claimed the title with 17 points and following them was the Briar Cliff Chargers with 43 points. Trinity Bible and Dakota State University did not have a complete team in the race. 28 runners ran in the Herb Blakely Men’s 8K race. Winning the individual title was former Trojan Matt Fideler, who was unattached, with a time of 25:46. First to come in for the Trojans was Andy Coy who completed the course in 26:22. Nic Penning finished the race at 5th place and a time of 27:39. Freshman Taylor Hauge came in 10th at a time of 28:50. Michael Hoffman, Steve Selchert, Jared Truman, and Thomas Ricket were of the four DSU men who ran unattached for the Trojans. Michael Hoffman was 4th with a time of 27:21. Steve Selchert came in at 17th place at 30:28. Jared Truman was 24th running the meet in 33:39. Thomas Ricket was 26th at 38:20.

When asked about the team’s overall performance, Coach Anthony Drealan commented, “I was satisfied with our team’s opener. Although we have had 3 great weeks of training, the first race is always a learning experience. Athlete’s are figuring out where they are at, and how aggressive to be. I’m confident in the next 4 weeks we will have a steep improvement curve as our training starts to take effect and we become race hardened. The goal is to have our peak performance at the A.I.I. Conference Championships November 3rd, which we did very well last year.”

On September 29, the Trojans will compete again, as a partial team for the men will make the journey to the Roy Griak Invitational in St. Paul, Minnesota and a partial team for women will run the Homecoming 5K. The full squads will run together again on October 6th at the Briar Cliff Invitational.

Featured photo courtesy of DSU Athletics