WAYNE – For the third time in the past four years (excluding COVID season), the NSIC Cross Country Championships will be held in Wayne.
According to a release from the league office in Burnsville, Minnesota the Wayne Country Club will host the two races on Saturday, November 5.
With frost forecasted for Saturday morning in Wayne, the start times have been adjusted.
The men’s 8,000-meter race is now scheduled for 11 a.m., followed by the women’s 6,000-meter race at noon on Saturday. The men’s race will have 14 teams competing while 16 teams will run in the women’s race. Fans can follow the action via social media (#NSICCC) and on the NSIC Network.
Admission to the championship is free.
A new men’s individual champion will be crowned this season as the reigning champion Austin Miller of Augustana graduated. Augustana, as a team, will be in search of its 12th NSIC championship in the past 13 seasons, after they had the top six finishers in last year’s race. Augustana enters the championship ranked 15th in the latest USTFCCCA Poll, while the Vikings (4th), Sioux Falls (7th), Minnesota State (9th) and Minnesota Duluth (10th) are ranked in the central region.
Winona State’s Lindsay Cunningham will look to repeat as the women’s champion. Cunningham ran away from the field as a freshman, winning by nearly 20 seconds. She has yet to lose a regular season race in her career, as she was also region champion and placed seventh in the nation a year ago. Augustana is the defending team champion from a year ago and are ranked fifth in the nation. UMD (14th), Minnesota State (16), Winona State (17) are also ranked nationally.
The NCAA Cross Country Regional will take place in Joplin, Missouri on Saturday, November 19th. The NCAA DII National Cross Country Championships will be held on Saturday, December 3 at Chamber’s Bay in University Place, Washington.
For more information visit the NSIC Cross Country Championship website at www.northernsun.org/NSICCC.
