September 5, 2025

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – Dakota State (S.D.) men's cross country opened the 2025 season 'under the lights' at Yankton Trails Park, racing against a stacked field at the NCAA Division II Augustana Twilight Meet. The Trojans placed seventh out of 25 teams, scoring 262 points with a team average of 20:17 over the four-mile course.

Dakota State posted the highest place finisher in men's cross country program history in the Augustana (S.D.) Twilight. Team Breakdown
DSU packed well, placing its top five runners within less than a minute of each other. Their total time of 1:41:27 secured them finish ahead of NCAA Division II Jamestown, Gustavus Adolphus (Minn.) (Division III), and Wayne State (Neb.) (Division II). Only NCAA DI South Dakota State (perfect 15 points), along with strong DII and NAIA squads like Augustana (Division II), Minnesota State (Division II), Concordia (Neb.), Doane (Neb.), and Nebraska Wesleyan (Division III), finished higher.

Dakota State was the top Frontier Conference place finisher in the meet.  Bellevue (Neb.), who received votes (RV) recognition in the NAIA Men's Cross Country Coaches' Top 25 national poll, finished 13^th with 360 points. Trojan Standouts

• Lane Henrichs (Jr.) led the way for DSU, running 19:56.80 (personal record) for 49^th overall in the 300-plus–runner field.
• Evan Armstrong (Jr.) followed closely in 20:01.73 (personal record), good for 54^th.
• Marc Corpus (Jr.) was just two seconds back at 20:03.96 (58^th).
• Benjamin Strunk (So.) contributed a solid effort at his 4-mile personal record time of 20:39.37 (112^th).
• Finley McConniel (Fr.), in his collegiate debut, closed the scoring five with a time of 20:45.25 (129^th).

Additional Dakota State results included Blake Schmiedt (Sr.) at personal record time of 20:57.68 (149^th), Tyler Nicke (So.) at 21:08.50 (169^th), Solomon Carter at 21:23.87, Holden Jelen (Fr.) at 4-mile personal record time of 21:38.69 (213^th), Logan Recoy at 21:40.43 (personal record), and Jonah Thiele at 21:47.84. David Brock (Fr.) clocked a time of 23:00.62, Kaiden Akey in 23:45.57 (personal record), and Lucas Harr in 24:26.17.
  Looking Ahead
Dakota State heads to Sioux Center, Iowa, for the Sunflower Open next Saturday (Sept. 13).  The men's race is tentatively scheduled for 10:45 a.m. on the campus of Dordt (Iowa).