St. Cloud State Cross Country Programs To Compete At 2015 NSIC Championships

BURNSVIlLE, Minn. – The St. Cloud State cross country teams are off to the 2015 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) Championships this weekend. The event will take place in Falcon Heights, Minn. on Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Les Bolstad Golf Course. The women's 6,000-meter race starts at 10 a.m., followed by the men's 8,000-meter race at 11:15 a.m. The women's race will have 15 teams competing, while 13 men's team will run in their race.

The SCSU women's program is led by juniors Samantha Sunstrom and Rachel Sakry. Sunstrom is a two-time Second Team All-NSIC selection after finishing 19th in the race last season and 17th overall in the race as a freshman. Sunstrom has been the team's top finisher at three of the four races this season with a season-best 6K time of 23:10.6 at the UWRF Invitational (9/11/15). Sakry was the team's top finisher on this same course at the Roy Griak Invitational (9/26/15) earlier this season and has finished second on the team in the other three races. Her season-best 6K time has been 23:24.6 at the Bob Waxlax Invitational (10/9/15). The SCSU women finished eighth as a team last season and took home ninth during the 2013 season.

The St. Cloud men's program is led by senior Chris Caron. Caron has paced the team in each of the four races during the regular season. His season-best 8K time is 26:04.36. Caron has competed at the NSIC Cross Country Championships in each of the last two years with a best ranking of 54th last season. Junior Johnathan Hess was the program's top finisher last season in 53rd place. Fellow junior John Simila has ranked second for the program at a pair of races this season. The men's team finished the race last season in eighth after placing 11th during the 2013 season.

The head coach of both programs in his first year is Sam Kettenhofen. Before his appointment this summer, Kettenhofen served as a graduate assistant with the track & field/cross country programs since 2013.

A link to the NSIC Cross Country Championship Website can be found here.

The Augustana men have won the last six NSIC team championships while the Viking women have won six of the last seven titles. A new individual championship will be crowned on the men's side as last year's winner, Sioux Falls Robert Brockmueller, has graduated. On the women's side Northern State's Sasha Hovind will return to defend her title.

The Huskies continue their 2015 season on Nov. 7 with a trip to the NCAA Division II Central Region Meet in Joplin, Mo. All qualifying athletes and teams will then advance to the 2015 NCAA Division II Championships, which will also be held in Joplin, Mo. on Nov. 21 at the Tom Rutledge CC Course.

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Players Mentioned

Chris Caron

Johnathan Hess

Rachel Sakry

John Simila

Sam Sunstrom