Jackrabbit women defend title in Tulsa

[JackJD]

The Jackrabbit women defended their Summit League Championship from the spring with a strong showing at the 2021 championships hosted by Oral Roberts in Tulsa. SDSU's Leah Hansen defended her individual-championship from last year March, 2021), running this season's 6k race in 21:03.8.

SDSU individuals:
1. Leah Hansen (Sophomore) 21:03.8
4. Cailee Peterson (Senior) 21:37.7
6. Anna Donnay (Senior) 21:44.7
21 Oksana Johnson (Senior) 22:41.9
23. Caitlin Bright (Freshman) 22:43.8
24. Claire Beckman (Freshman)
25. Kayla Christopherson
26. Bailey Dergan
30 Jessica Christoffer
39 Nicole Greyer

Team scores:
1 SDSU 55
2. NDSU 56
3. USD 67
4. St. Thomas 96
5. UND 98
6. UMKC 160
7. WIU 207
8. Omaha 214
9. ORU 256

Note our fifth finisher was only 1:40 behind winner Leah Hansen. Good performance! Leah Hansen is a sophomore and our fifth and sixth finishers, Bright and Beckman, are freshmen.

Facts from the Summit League site:

• Today's win was the second straight for the SDSU women and their third overall.
• Champion Leah Hansen repeated as the individual champion -- last year, as a freshman, she won in Macomb IL, touring Western Illinois' 6k in 21:45.59.
• Hansen has collected three TicketSmarter Summit League weekly awards and won the SDSU Classic 5K title with a personal-best time of 17:56.91. Hansen also has recorded the fastest 6K time (20:51.8) this season, which she placed fourth in the prestigious Bradley Pink Classic.
• Prior to today's Summit League Championship, the SDSU women are ranked No 9 in the USTFCCCA Midwest Regional rankings.

[91jack]

It was nice to see the championship out of the women. The men have always been good but the women have had problems beating USD most of the years they have both been D1.
This might quite down the talk about winning last year when USD (and some other teams) did not go because of covid.
With two of the top three being seniors, it will be interesting to see who steps up next season.

[JackJD]

Some good runners returning; and winning the conference title with a sophomore winning her second individual title, can be very helpful in recruiting.