RESULTS

UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. - Dillon Powell's individual title set the pace for Colorado School of Mines history on Friday as the Oredigger men won their third NCAA Division II Men's Cross Country national championship since 2015, and Mines' women finished third in the nation.

The Oredigger men dominated their race, posting the largest margin of victory in meet history with a 143-point edge over national runner-up Wingate. Powell's performance anchored a Mines team score of 43 points as he became the first runner in program history to win individual gold. The Oredigger women scored 164 points and matched their best finish in program history at #3 with a third consecutive podium appearance. They were led by 12th-place finisher Molly Maksin and finished only behind #1 Adams State and #2 Grand Valley State.
 
For the first time in program history, all seven of Mines' men earned USTFCCCA All-American status by virtue of top-40 finishes. It was Powell, Duncan Fuehne, Loic Scomparin, Luke Julian, Chris Cathcart, Paul Knight, and Steven Goldy donning the medals at the awards ceremony. On the women's side, Maksin, Zoe Baker and Grace Strongman gave the Orediggers three USTFCCCA All-American's which matched the program's record for most all-Americans in a season.
 
MEN'S RACE
After a week of moisture and freezing temperatures put the Chambers Creek Regional Park course through its undulations, 262 men toed the starting line at 10 a.m. local time 40 miles south of Seattle. At the sound of the gun, Powell and Cathcart led the charge to the front for the men of Mines. For half of the 10,000-meter race, Powell allowed Jan Lukas Becker of Mississippi and Jan Lukas Becker to run with him. At the 5,000-meter point of the race, the Air Academy graduate dropped the hammer and won going away, crossing the line in a time of 29:28.0. He finished 19 seconds ahead of Grand Valley State's Tanner Chada and 20 ahead of third-placed teammate Fuehne.
 
It didn't take long for the rest of his teammates to join him. Fuehne took #3 with a time of 29:48.3. Then, Loic Scomparin clocked 30:06.5 for #10 and Luke Julian ran 30:11.5 which was good enough for #13. Cathcart and Knight went back-to-back at #23 and #24, respectively. Cathcart's final 10K pace was 30:16.8, and Knight was less than a second behind at 30:17.6. Goldy capped Oredigger history as the seventh all-American in 30th place thanks to a time of 30:23.6.

WOMEN'S RACE
With a scheduled start time of 11:15 a.m. local time, the gun for the women's race officially sounded 15 seconds earlier than scheduled, and the women were off. After the abuse the course took in the first race, the Oredigger women found a slower start than desired through 600 meters. However, Mines would make up the difference over the rest of the 6,000-meter race. Nearing the halfway point, Maksin had surged 11 spots and Baker overtook 10 runners herself. The charge continued into the final 1,000 meters as Maksin passed two more runners and Baker improved six more places. Overshadowing those impressive moves was Strongman who charged ahead of more than 15 runners over the last half of the race.
 
Coming down the finishing chute, it was Maksin crossing first for the Orediggers at #12 in 20:54.9. Baker scored second for Mines at #33 with a 6K time of 21:15.2. Strongman finished her incredible surge by taking #39 at a pace of 21:20.7. Clare Peters and Holly Moser rounded out the Oredigger scoring at #47 and #61 with respective times of 21:28.2 and 21:37.0. Alayna Szuch was not far behind, crossing the finish line in 66th place thanks to a 21:41.5 clip. Jenna Ramsey rounded out Mines' roster at #101 with a time of 22:04.7.
 
NOTABLES
- Powell, who won the NCAA outdoor 10K title last spring, capped an undefeated cross country season including individual wins at D2 Pre-Nationals, the RMAC Championships, the South Central Region Championships.
- Baker became the first three-time cross country all-American in program history. She finished #19 in 2019 and #25 in 2021.
- Mines' men had all seven runners across the finish line before runner-up Wingate scored three individuals.
- The time spread for the Oredigger men between top runner Powell and seventh runner Goldy was 55.6 seconds.
- Mines' women posted a spread just under 70 seconds.
- The Oredigger men also won team titles in 2015 and 2019.
- Mines' previous top individual finish at the national meet was #4, accomplished by Dylan Ko in 2019 and Kyle Moran in 2022.
- The last time the Oredigger women had three USTFCCCA All-Americans in one season was 2019 when Chloe Cook (now Colligan), Morgan Molesworth and Zoe Baker guided Mines' women to their first podium in program history.
- It was 2019 when the Oredigger women posted their highest-ever team finish at #3 in the nation.
- Powell's final time of 29:28.0 was 15.1 seconds faster than his winning time two weeks ago at the NCAA South Central Region Championships in Denver.
- Furthermore, Powell has run 10 collegiate cross country races in an Oredigger uniform and finished #1 seven times.
- Maksin became the third Oredigger woman to become a multi-time cross country all-American. The only others to do it were Heather Beresford and teammate Baker.
- Cathcart, Fuehne, Goldy, Knight, Powell, and Scomparin all earned the first cross country all-America award of their respective careers.
- Strongman, a redshirt freshman, earned her first-ever all-American accolade.
 
WHAT'S NEXT
The indoor track & field season started on Friday afternoon at Air Force. Mines' distance crew will join the fray in the new year.

Fans can keep up with Mines cross country on Twitter and Instagram at @csmtrack. They can also keep up with Colorado School of Mines Athletics all year long on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using the handle @MinesAthletics.