2 Hawks post wins in windy home race

• Brittany Young and Gladys Rotich

Press Photo by Dustin Monke Dickinson State sophomore Brittany Young, right, runs in front of teammate Gladys Rotich on Friday aftenroon during the Blue Hawk Invitational cross country meet held on DSU’s campus.

Talk about it

Call it a training exercise.

A two-team cross country meet with Valley City State was just what Dickinson State needed to get into battle mode as it prepares for a challenging October schedule.

“It’s not like you’re going into a 20-team meet, but it’s not practice either,” DSU head coach Mike Nekuda said. “You can learn some things out there and you can take some risks.”

Sophomore Brittany Young earned her first win as a Blue Hawk, winning the 4K women’s race in 15 minutes, 31 seconds on a course that wrapped around DSU’s football practice fields.

Former Blue Hawk Ismael Arzola won the men’s race in 21:22 and served as a rabbit for junior Roberto Quintero, who finished just four seconds behind Arzola.

Quintero said he felt great about his performance, considering the cool and windy conditions.

“The time I got right now, it’s pretty solid compared with the wind that we got,” Quintero said of his 21:26 finish in the 6,400-meter race. “I probably could have cut down 30 seconds on a nice day.”

Winds seemed to gradually pick up as the race went on.

The women, racing first, had it a little bit easier than the men did. Young wasn’t deterred by the conditions at all.

Young followed Nekuda to Dickinson when the first-year coach left Dakota State in Madison, S.D., to take the position with the Blue Hawks.

A NAIA All-America 800-meter runner, Young took last year off from cross country due to an injury. She’s happy to be back on the course now though, especially after Friday’s win.

“I think it’s just a matter of getting in shape,” Young said. “We’ve been doing a lot of speed workouts. He (Nekuda) has a different training style this season. I’m just taking to it really well. That has a lot to do with it, the training and just getting into the flow of things.”

DSU’s Gladys Rotich was second with a 15:49 and VCSU’s Anna Fuka was third at 15:50. DSU’s Vanessa Esquival and Stormie Sickler were fourth and fifth, respectively, with times of 16:16 and 16:35.

VCSU’s Jesse Dorado was third in the men’s race with a 21:38. DSU’s Edwin Chelashaw followed him at 21:58 and unattached runner James Mousseau, a Killdeer native, was fifth at 21:59.

The Blue Hawks move on to the Montana State-Billings Invitational on Oct. 15 and the Mount Marty Invitational on Oct. 22. They will compete in their first Frontier Conference championship meet on Nov. 5 in Billings, Mont., to wrap up the regular season.

Nekuda said Friday was important to get the team back into race mode as it prepares for back-to-back challenging weekends.

“I let them know, it’s about the effort,” Nekuda said.

Dickinson State Invitational

Men’s team scores:1, DSU 24. 2, VCSU 32.

Men’s finishers: 1, Ismael Arzola, unattached, 21:22. 2, Roberto Quintero, DSU, 21:26. 3, Jesse Dorado, VCSU, 21:38. 4, Edwin Chelashaw, DSU, 21:58. 5, James Mousseau, unattached, 21:59. 6, Jimmy Granados, unattached, 22:37. 7, Dustin Sandbak, DSU, 22:43. 8, Casey Flick, VCSU, 22:44. 9, Richard Wright, VCSU, 22:45. 10, Chris Gill, unattached, 22:57. 11, Eddie Meneses, DSU, 23:16. 12, Wayne Engelhard, VCSU, 23:56. 13, Colter Steinmetz, unattached, 23:58. 14, Clayton Steinmetz, DSU, 24:16. 15, Daniel Patrick, DSU, 24:26. 16, Kinsly Tarmann, VCSU, 24:27. 17, Derek Burchill, VCSU, 24:55.

Women’s finishers: 1, Brittany Young, DSU, 15:31. 2, Gladys Rotich, DSU, 15:49. 3, Anna Fuka, VCSU, 15:50. 4, Vanessa Esquivel, unattached, 16:16. 5, Stormie Sickler, DSU, 16:35. 6, Krista Briss, VCSU, 17:30. 7, Sam Pounds, DSU, 17:37. 8, Clara Escutia, unattached, 17:41. 9, Rose Byrne, DSU, 17:50. 10, Mariela Sanchez, DSU, 19:43.

Note: Women’s team scores were not charted due to lack of runners.

Tags: cross country, blue hawks, sports, running