Coach Parno Gets Press On Letsrun.com for his picks!

Check out the paragraph on letsrun.com!

Boom!

Coach Parno Picks Augie To Win Nationals Beforehand, Wins National letsrun.com Poll!

Hey!

     Letsrun.com came out with a poll prior to nationals.   The goal was to put in order the predicted finishes of the top ten men's and women's team.   The poll was then scored after the race and the results were published.  Coach Parno was the only person in the nation to pick the Augie Women as national champions prior to the race and his combined score brought him out on top!

He wins a letsrun.com t shirt which is cool, but winning the national championship was also very cool!

Nationals Videos! Historic Weekend For Augustana Cross Country!

Athlete Interviews and Race Footage 



 Bloopers and Fun






 

Famous Professional Runners Tweeting About Our National Championship!

After the win, coach Parno tweeted the news to a bunch of professional runners for a shout out.  We got some great responses back! Check out the tweets!

Notes From Tracy Hellman On The National Championship!

Augustana Cross Country = NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!!!   That has a great sound behind it, huh?  I believe my grad assistant coach sent out a quick email on Saturday, but I wanted to send an email myself and share the great news.  I apologize for the delay in getting the info out......it has been a crazy busy last few days.

Going into this season, I had high expectations for both teams.  I thought we could place both men and women in the top 5-6 and on a great day, place even higher.  Never in my mind did I think we could WIN THE NATIONALS!!!  What an unbelievable feeling this is for the kids, the program and the school.

I knew the ladies had run a great race, but I didn't think we had won.  I was walking back to the team 5-10 min after the finish, and I bumped into a fellow coach from U of Southern Indiana.  He gave me his phone and told me to talk to the person on the other line.  I'm not sure who it was, but the voice on the other line relayed the info to me that we had just won the National Championships!  What a surreal and emotional feeling I was having.....I couldn't believe it!  I ran back to tell the ladies and they went crazy with excitement and joy.  There was tears, celebration, and pride.......we couldn't believe what had just happened.

The top 5 scoring runners for the Augie ladies were in the top 30, with all 5 receiving All-American.  Our time spread from 1-5 was 28 seconds, the best spread among all the teams.  The victory was truly a "team effort".  We ended up winning by 4 points over Western State, the #1 team in the nation.  The 4 point victory was the 2nd closest finish in the history of Division 2 cross country.

Not to get lost in the excitement about our ladies, is the fact that our men had a truly outstanding day.  They placed 6th overall....equaling the best finish in school history!  (Last year, the men's team also placed 6th)  They guys have shown great improvement in the past few years with placing 10th, 6th, and 6th the past 3 years at the National.  We had 2 All-Americans in the men with Paul Yak placing 11th and Ryan Evans 32nd.  We red shirted our best runner this year (Travis Beniak) in hopes that we can make a run at the National Title in the men next year.  With our top 6 men returning, plus Travis......the future looks promising!  We also red shirted some key freshmen this year, so the hope is to continue placing higher at Nationals with hopes of winning a men's title to go along with the women's!  With the rate of improvement in our men......I wouldn't put it past them!

This past Saturday, in Spokane Washington........it truly was a GREAT DAY TO BE A VIKING!  We are glad you are interested in our program, and we would be excited for you to join the momentum and join our program!  

Best Regards,

Coach Tracy Hellman

New XC Rankings!

NEW ORLEANS – The Augustana women are ranked No. 5 and the men No. 7 in the latest national poll released Wednesday by the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.

The women fell one spot, while the men kept their position from last week.

Last week at the Central Region Championship in Denver, Colo., the Viking women placed third, and the men took fourth.  The effort qualified both squads for nationals.

The NCAA Championship is slated for Nov. 19 in Spokane, Wash


Link to Rankings!

Hal Falls

This is part of an inside joke but enjoy! Hal has a great sense of humor and got up and finished well in the race. He is ready for regionals and then nationals!

National XC Rankings

The Augustana Vikings women are ranked 4th and men 7th nationally going into the regional competition this week.   New rankings will be out this week! Click on the links below to check it out!

Regional Rankings

National Rankings 

This past year on flotrack

Here are some video's from this past year covering some of our athletes. Enjoy!


Watch more videos on Flotrack



Watch more videos on Flotrack



Watch more videos on Flotrack



Watch more videos on Flotrack



Watch more videos on Flotrack

XC Conference Championship Races 2011

 Men's XC Conference Championship Race



Women's XC Conference Championship Race

Weeeeeeeeeeee Are The Champions!!!

    Exciting news for the Augustana XC programs this past weekend.   Both men and women came out of the conference meets with the titles.   The XC gods were good to us with a beautiful sunny warm day in October which made the race that much better.  
     The women were first up and it proved to be a good race.   University of Mary was ranked closely behind us at both the national and conference level.    Our girls needed a good effort, and they all performed well.    Runa Falch's winning effort was more than eight seconds better than the runner-up performance by teammate Kyle Blakeslee.  Falch navigated the 6,000-meter course in 20:38.30, while Blakeslee came in at 20:46.40.  After the first two going number one and two in the race, Augie kept pouring it on with Leah Hansen placing fourth in a time of 20:54.60, Kelly Kougl finishing seventh in 21:26.50, and Kristin Brondbo collected eighth-place honors (21:30.20).   The Vikings were able to place 7 in the top 20 runners with Annie Pfeifle (22:05.20) placing 14th, and Miriam Hovda (22:19.30) 18th.  The women finished 13 points ahead of second place Mary.  This rivalry will continue through the Regional and National competition.
    Next up was the mens race.   With the debut of Tom Karbo joining the already strong men's team, it proved to be a fun race to watch.   Four of Augustana's men finished in the top-five. Yak beat teammate and second-place finisher Ryan Evans by more than 17 seconds, cruising through the 8,000-meter course in 24:28.80.  Evans finished in 24:46:00.   Karbo, who won the race last year, placed third (24:51.40), and Adam Braun (24:56.60) checked in at fifth.  Augie rounded out the top 20 with Jordan Slusser (25:27.30) placing 13th and Halvard Lange (25:31.90) at15th (All-NSIC second team).  The men's team finished 28 points ahead of second place Mankato.   The men's team will be fun to watch going into regionals and nationals.  
     Coach Tracy Hellman continues his dominant streak with now 5 women's championhips in a row, and 3 in the row for the men.   Hellman picked up coach of the year accolades for both men and women and is running out of space for awards in his office!
     The Vikings head to Denver, CO for the regional XC race on the 5-6th of Nov, and upon qualifying will head to Spokane, WA for the national meet on the 19-20th of Nov.

Exciting Times Ahead!

     Since this weekend is Vikings Days the cross country teams are off.   Last weekend we competed down at Briar Cliff and swept both titles!   It was a very flat course and some fast times were put down.   Travis Beniak (unattached) was crowned champion for the men while Kristin Brondbo was the top finisher for the Viking women.   The regular season for the cross country season this year has been relatively quiet with many of our top runners sitting out.   Its championship season now, and Augie is going to bring out all the stops!
     We have the conference meet next weekend Oct. 21-23 in Moorhead, MN.   Both men and women are defending champions and will be tough to beat again this year!   Stay tuned for results!

Visit our Facebook page: Augie Track
Twitter: @Augustanatrack

Looking back....

Just a look at some past 600's run in the past few years.....

Men











Women

Men and Women 2nd Place at Griak Invitational

    The Augustana College Cross Country programs had a great weekend at the Roy Griak Invitational.   Last year the women pulled in a 5th place, while the men came out of the meet as champions.    There was a lot of excitement headed into this weekend and both teams came out with 2nd place finishes.   The weather was beautiful at the University of Minnesota golf course as the women took the course.
     On the shoulders of Kyle Blakeslee and Leah Hansen the women ran strong and finished second to the University of Mary by 2 points.   With key runners like Runa Falch, Kristin Brondbo, and Ingeborg Lind not present, this second place finish really displayed the depth of the women's team!  Check out the results below to see times and places.
     With Travis Beniak running unattached, and Tom Karbo resting this week, the men were missing some key runners, but still ran strong.   Paul Yak and Ryan Evans ran well as usual while new frehsman TJ Gleason and Adam Braun stepped up and got the job done to help the mens team finished behind only Central Missouri.
     Its hard to see the true potential of the Augustana teams on both sides with Coach Hellman still resting some of our best runners, but there is a lot of excitement around how we have ran so far moving forward!   Stay tuned for more exciting cross country news! 


Women's Results

Men's Results

Griak Weekend! Track and Field Started!

     Hello!  We have an exciting week coming up for Cross Country.   We are heading to the Twin Cities Thursday for the Roy Griak Invitational.   Last year the Women placed 4th with some of our top runners not running which showed the depth of our team, and the Men won the title.   With many of our Norwegian and Swedish runners being held out to rest this year, we will be counting on many of our talented freshman to step up as we look for solid finishes in both the men and women races.   We will also get the chance to race against many conference school, so it should be a good showdown this year. 
    Looking ahead, the cross teams will compete in Kenosha Wisconsin on the 8th of October which will be the last meet before the Conference Championships.   After the the conference meet, the team will get to do quite a bit of traveling with the regional being in Denver and baring qualifying. nationals will be in Spokane Washington.   Look for more exciting news from our cross country program this year!

    On the track side of things we are entering our second week of practice!  The coaches are seeing just how much work our athletes put in over the summer, and how talented our freshman class is.   To prevent injury we are easing into training this year spending three weeks on general fitness, running form, bounding, and sprint drills.   After these first three weeks we will be doing different types of fitness testing.   This testing will help us gauge the effectiveness of our training and the improvements our athletes make during the year! 

Busy Weekend for Augie Track and Cross Country

   Augustana had probably its busiest weekend of the cross country season and we didn't even compete!  We hosted the "Meet of Champions" for high school teams around the area, and worked a water stop for the Sioux Falls Marathon.   
   Saturday's "Meet of Champions" was again a success and we were able to have almost all of the Augie track and CC athletes there.   Temperatures were a little on the hot side, but it didn't stop the runners and fans from creating a wonderful cross country atmosphere.  With our athletes working jobs like parking, course control, water, and take down we were able to run a fantastic meet for the visiting high schools.   This course is one of the hardest the high school runners will see all year, and the slogan on the back of the meet shirts capture it perfectly..."I survived the hills"
  The Sioux falls Marathon is always a fun event for Augie runners as we usually have the most energetic water stop.   We have won the award for the best water stop the past 5 years and look to win it again this year with our Hawaiian theme.    Decked out in grass skirts, swimsuits, and crazy hats the Augie runners went crazy for two hours as runners came through and grabbed water and Powerade on the way.   Its always good that we can put smiles on peoples faces as they run such a tough race.
  Cross country is still rolling this week as they look forward to the upcoming Roy Griak Invitational at the U of M, while the track and field teams will be starting practice today, and preparing for the long season ahead.   Stay tuned for more pictures and news!
    

Augustana Twilight Meet!

     For years Coach Hellman played around with the idea of having a cross country meet under the lights.   A concept relatively unheard of in the cross country world.    This year the information finally went out, teams started signing up, and we were ready to roll.    The meet was held at Yankton Trails here in Sioux Falls, a venue with open soccer fields and lights covering over half of the mile loop set up for the course.   Over 600 glow sticks and brightly colored flags lined the course setting the stage for this one of a kind meet.   Teams started showing up around 7:00 p.m. with 8:30 and 9:00 being the start times.
     As teams warmed up the sunlight started fading and the woman headed to the start line.   At the sound of the gun 100+ women took off on the mile loop.   The women's race covered 3 laps (3 miles) and was dominated by Augie.  Kyle Blakeslee (16:50.46) took the first ever twilight title in a convincing 7 second win over Ashley Unruh a non-Augie unattached runner.  Annie Pfiefle (17:00.04) placed third, while Leah Hanson (17:11.35) was fourth. Kelly Kougl (17:25.39) finished sixth, and Gabi Swoboda (17:26.21, unattached) crossed in seventh-place.  The Augustana women rounded out the top 20 with Megan Brown (17:59.87, 16th) and Maddy Jourgenson (18:06.83, 18th).  This is an outstanding start to the 2011 campaign.   Runa Falch, Kristin Brondbo, and Ingeborg Kristine all sat this race out after just arriving back in America the day of the meet.   These three ladies will help fill out the top end of the team and provide great leadership moving forward.  Good work ladies!
     After a great effort put in by the women's team, the men took to the starting line.  With seniors like Matt Braithwaite and Dan Black gone, the Augustana top five will look a little different this year.   We are fortunate to have many talented new freshman faces this year, as well as a strong returning crew.  Travis Beniak won in convincing fashion with a time of 18:55.63 on the 4 mile course.   Paul Yak complimented Beniak's performance with a fourth-place finish at 19:22.04. Ryan Evans (19:36.49) took fifth, while Adam Braun (19:38.39, unattached) finished sixth.  Rounding out the top 20 for men were TJ Gleason (19:49.50, 13th) and Shane McCallum (20:17.25, 20th).    Many of the runners on the men's team were unattached since the meet was early, and coach Hellman is trying to see where everyone is fitness wise.   Tom Karbo also raced but took it easy seeing he had just arrived back in America with Runa, Kristin, and Ingeborg.
     We had a great response from both visiting coaches and athletes.   Between the lights, glow sticks, DJ, and beautiful weather the first annual Augustana Twilight meet went off without a hitch.   This will be a meet we can hopefully continue to put on many years to come!  More to come!

Video From Stanford

In my last post I forgot to highlight the fact that Runa Falch broke the all time state record in the 5k at Stanford! What a great effort from her. She will be able to take some much needed rest right now and build back up for the outdoor national meet in California where she will be able to contend in the 5k race for another all-american spot. She should be joined by Kristen Brondbo who also ran very well.

Here is great video from this weekend that I found on Runnerspace.com and flotrack.com.


Watch more video of 2011 Stanford Invitational on flotrack.org



Watch more video of 2011 Stanford Invitational on flotrack.org



Watch more video of 2011 Stanford Invitational on flotrack.org

Augustana Opens up at Stanford

Check out the great coverage of all of the Augustana races from this past weekend! I have the results sorted out so you can click on the link after the name to view the video from each race. It should save you the time digging through each race! I am planning to embed all of the video here as soon as I get the chance.

Even though the weather wasn't great our athletes ran really well. I am looking forward to our home opener this coming weekend where the entire team, fresh and rested off of spring break makes its debut.

Coach Vahrenkamp

Stanford Invite Mar 25, 2011 to Mar 26, 2011
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Men: 100m | 400m | 5k | 3k Steeple | 110h Women: 5k | 3k Steeple
Mens 100m						Back to top
	Name	Yr	School	Prelims	Wind	H#		Pts
5	Oquendo, Diego		Augustana (SD)	10.95a	+1.3	3
Mens 400m						Back to top
	Name	Yr	School	Finals	H#			Pts
1	Omot, Aduo		Augustana (SD)	50.00a	5
Mens 5000m						Back to top
	Name	Yr	School	Finals	H#			Pts
17	Braithwaite, Matt		Augustana (SD)	14:44.95a	4
20	Karbo, Tom		Augustana (SD)	14:51.84a	4
Mens 3k Steeple						Back to top
	Name	Yr	School	Finals	H#			Pts
7	Beniak, Travis		Augustana (SD)	9:01.24a	1
Mens 110m Hurdles						Back to top
	Name	Yr	School	Prelims	H#			Pts
2	Oquendo, Diego		Augustana (SD)	14.60a	2
6	Mallory, Paul		Augustana (SD)	15.48a	3
Womens 5000m						Back to top
	Name	Yr	School	Finals	H#			Pts
3	Falch, Runa		Augustana (SD)	16:28.57a	3
Womens 3k Steeple						Back to top
	Name	Yr	School	Finals	H#			Pts
3	Blakeslee, Kyle		Augustana (SD)	10:38.86a	3
Notations: a = Fully Automatic Timing (FAT) c = converted Hand Timing w = Wind Assisted (>2.0 meters per second) ^ = Altitude

Read more: Stanford Invite http://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?team=28310&do=info&event_id=57&year=2011#ixzz1HnPvU8go

Here it is. This weekend, more specifically Friday and Saturday Augustana athletes will be competing at Stanford. The predicted weather is 58 with a chance of showers. Most of the athletes will be competing in distance races but both Diego Oquendo and Paul Mallory will be running the 110m hurdles. As results from the races come up I'll post them here and include any video that I can get of races after they occur.