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!