Lancers finish 4th (Men) & 7th (Women) at Dordt University Holiday Inn Express Sunflower Open

Mount Marty traveled to Iowa to run in the Holiday Inn Express Sunflower Open. 

Jordyn Fischer paced the Lancer women with a personal best 5K time (20:44.29).  She was followed by Emily Johnson (22:26.01), Alexis Gosch (23:11.35), Bree Eisenhauer (24:11.54) and Grace Holys (25:15.79).  "Congrats to our women's team!  All five runners ran faster than they did in our first meet," exclaimed Mount Marty Head Coach Dan Fitzsimmons.

In the men's race, Brian Santiago, running unattached, outdistanced the field while breaking 25 minutes (24:55.07) for the 8K course.  The Lancers finished 4th overall behind two NCAA Division II programs and Dordt University, the defending NAIA National XC Champions and ahead of four GPAC opponents.  Logan Ferrari once again paced the Lancers.  Ferrari finished 12th overall in a new personal best 8K time (26:12.40).  He was followed closely by Ethan Fritzinger (20th, 26:44.01) and Tague Tvedt (21st, 26:45.75) who also had a personal best.  Owen Koontz (27:59.41) and Liam Vidas (28:57.54) rounded out the top five scoring for MMU.  Jacob Kueny (29:50.87-personal best), Prince De'Sersa (30:01.21), Alan Santiago (35:06.58), and David Phillips (38:15.92) also ran for the Lancers.  The meet marked the first 8K for Fritzinger, Koontz, De'Sersa, and Santiago.

"Overall, we are extremely happy with our men's performances over the first two meets.  We still have a lot of room for improvement and we look to tighten up that team time gap from 1-5 over the next few meets," stated Fitzsimmons.  "It was great to see Brian Santiago run so well.  To run that fast while student teaching is remarkable."  (Santiago has completed his cross country and track & field eligibility but is training to qualify for the NAIA Marathon.)

Mount Marty will next compete in Wayne, Nebraska on Friday, September 22nd, 2023.
(Results can be found at DakotaTiming.com)