INDIANOLA, Iowa – For the fourth year in a row, the Wartburg College Knights men’s and women’s teams sweep the American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) Cross Country Championships. Both teams won comfortably with an individual win by Christopher Collet in the men’s race and a 2-3-4-5-6 sweep on the women’s side, led by Aubrie Fisher with a runner-up finish. The team titles were the fourth in a row for the women and fifth-straight for the men. After claiming A-R-C Individual Champion and NCAA Division III Individual National Champion honors in 2021, Loras’ Kassie Parker took home the conference title again this year.
With all five runners in the top 10, Wartburg’s team score on the women’s side was 20 points. Loras totaled 60 points to finish in second place while Central finished in third with 80 points. The Wartburg men also had all five runners in the top 10 and finished with a team score of 26 points. Loras' men finished in second place, totaling 50 points and Luther finished third with 83 points.
Parker of Loras covered the 6,000-meter women’s course in 20 minutes, 50.84 seconds. She pulled away from Fisher, who crossed in second place in a time of 22:06.79. Fisher’s teammates finished right behind her. Riley Mayer was third in a time of 22:14.33. Shaelyn Hostager took fourth place (22:15.58), Ellie Meyer was fifth (22:22.28), and Lexi Brown was sixth (22:34.42) to close out the top-five scorers for the Knights.
Collet won his first individual title at the conference championship running the 8,000-meter course in a time of 24:32.11. Teammates Connor Lancial, Jack Kinzer, Jacob Green, and Lance Sobaski closed out the top-five scorers for the Knights. Lancial finished in third in a time of 25:10.69. Kinzer was fifth (25:22.3), Green finished in eighth (25:25.02) and Sobaski took home ninth place (25:25.94).
Head coach Ryan Chapman and assistant Hannah Weiss were voted Coaching Staff of the Year for both the women and the men. The women’s award was Chapman’s fourth, while the men’s honor is his fifth in a row.
Finishing in the Top 15 resulted in all-conference honors. Central’s Caroline McMartin took home seventh place honors, while her teammate Hailey Hill finished 15th. Gabby Thomas of Nebraska Wesleyan was the lone Prairie Wolf making the top 15 finishing in eighth. Wartburg’s Haley Meyer and Addy Carlson also earned All-Conference honors, finishing ninth and 11th, respectively. Parker’s teammates, Brianna Renner and Kaylee Osterberger finished 10th and 13th for the Duhawks. Simpson’s Emma Angus and Lara Kallem round out the all-conference performers, finishing 12th and 14th, respectively.
All-conference honors in the men’s race went to Loras’ Luke Guttormson finishing second in a time of 25:00.67 and teammates Wyatt Kelly and Julian Watson finished sixth and seventh respectively. Luther’s Ian Kelly crossed the finish line in fourth place and teammate Tom Altier took home 11th place. Central’s Noah Jorgenson finished 10th and Simpson’s Spencer Moon finished 12th to earn all-conference honors. Rounding out the all-conference team on the men’s side are Wartburg’s Eli Larson (13th), Morgan Shirley-Fairbairn (14th), and Tyler Schermerhorn (15th).
The 2022 NCAA Division III Cross Country Midwest Regional will be held by Aurora University in Geneva, Illinois at the Northwestern Medicine Cross Country Course November 12, 2022. The NCAA Division III Cross Country Championship will be held at Forest Akers East Golf Course in East Lansing, Michigan November 19, 2022.
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