Men's team, Duerkson go to NCAA Championships

FROM IDS REPORTS

The IU men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in the Great Lakes Regional this weekend in Madison, Wisc. The men’s team finished third and qualified for an at-large bid to the NCAA Championship meet next weekend.

Senior Kelsey Duerksen qualified as an individual for the women’s race after the Hoosiers finished seventh.

The top two teams for the men’s race, Wisconsin and Michigan, advanced automatically to nationals, so IU was forced to wait until at-large bids were announced later during the weekend.

The men’s team was led in the 10K race by senior Zach Mayhew, who finished second with a time of 30:43 Senior Andy Bayer clocked in at 30:46 to earn fourth. Those performances were good enough to earn them individual berths to nationals until it was announced the whole team would be competing.

Junior Robby Nierman (32nd), sophomore Evan Esselink (33rd) and sophomore JR Ricker (36th) also scored for the Hoosier men, bringing their total to 107 points on the day.

In the women’s race, Duerksen led the team with her 14th place finish in the 6K race. She finished in 20:47 to earn herself a spot at nationals for the first time in her career.

The women’s team finished seventh of the 32 teams competing, identical to the team’s performance last year. Other Hoosier scorers include senior Caitlin Engel (27th, 21:01), senior Arianne Raby (43rd, 21:29), sophomore Molly Winters (46th, 21:31) and junior Erica Ridderman (50th, 21:34).

 ­— Casey Krajewski