HOUGHTON, Mich. – The Michigan Tech cross country teams are back in action on Friday at the Roy Griak Invitational in St. Paul, Minnesota at the Les Bolstad Golf Course hosted by the University of Minnesota. 

Michigan Tech has 23 men that will compete in the Jo Rider Men's Maroon race at 12:30 p.m. with 17 women to follow in the Suzy Wilson Women's Maroon race at 1:15 p.m. 28 teams are competing in the men's race while the women's race contains 29 teams.

Live results of the event can be found here.

Last Time Out

The Huskies opened the 2024 campaign at the Phoenix Open hosted by Green Bay on Sept. 6. The Men of Michigan Tech repeated as team winners in a more competitive field than the previous year, with a point total of 44–36 points ahead of host Green Bay. 

The women claimed fifth with 131 points besting Northern Michigan who scored 166 points.

The men's success came from a spread of 15 seconds and an average time of 25:12 from the Huskies' top-five runners. Newcomer Michael Dennis led the charge of Black & Gold in 25:08.1 with last year's Phoenix Open winner Tucker Ringhand (25:09.3) and Sam Lange (25:09.6) placing sixth, seventh and eighth, respectively. 

Sophomore Colman Lenci (25:12.3) and Junior Sawyer Fowler (25:23) had breakthrough races to place amongst Tech's top-five for the first time in their careers, placing ninth and 14th overall.

Juniors Callen Carrier (25:38.3) and Sam Marshall (25:51.1) placed 22nd and 28th as the sixth and seventh finishers for the Huskies.

Dennis earned GLIAC Athlete of the Week honors following his efforts at the Phoenix Open, as the Men of Michigan Tech entered the USTFCCCA Week 1 National Coaches' Poll at No. 26 after receiving votes in the preseason poll.

Sophomore Sophia Rhein impressed in the women's 6k at the Phoenix Open, improving on her place and time from her freshman campaign. She took fourth overall in 22:21.3. 

Pack running was perfected by the Huskies 2-5 runners who finished within 12 seconds of each other. 

Junior's Ingrid Halverson (23:22.8) and Claire Endres (23:24.2) finished 29th and 30th, respectively with Endres running a 23-second personal-best. Freshman Erica Kazin (23:30.8) placed fourth for the Huskies. Senior Cedar Gordon was the fifth runner for the Black & Gold placing 35th in 23:32.8.

Bridget Burns ran a personal-best time of 23:34.0 shaving 33 seconds off her previous PR to take 37th-place. Alisa Teige was the seventh finisher for the Huskies clocking 23:45.0.

One Last Thing

Michigan Tech's men's squad once again looks to be in form to compete for the win in the Jo Rider men's Maroon race, a race the team won back in 2022.