Grand Forks N.D. – For the first time in ten years, North Dakota cross country opens the season at home.
The Ron Pynn Classic, named for a retired UND professor and longtime supporter of the track and field program, will get underway at
Ray Richards Golf Course on Saturday, September 4.
The women will start the day with a 5,000m race at 11:00 a.m. The men will follow with a 6,000m race at 11:45 a.m.
North Dakota looks to pick up where it left after an abbreviated 2020-2021 season, a program on the rise.
Defending Summit League champion
Patrick Kipkemboi returns to action for the Fighting Hawks coming off an appearance at the 2020 NCAA Cross Country Championship. He was just the third Summit League men's runner to compete at the national meet in the last nine seasons.
The last time the Hawks laced up the spikes at a cross country meet as a team was the 2020 Summit League Championships in Macomb, Ill. where UND came home with eight all-conference performances including
Conny Wohlfahrt and
Nick Oak being named newcomers of the year in their respective races. The women finished second, the highest finish the women have had in a conference championship since finishing second in the Great West Conference in the transition to NCAA Division I. The men finished third, the highest conference meet finish in the Division I era.
North Dakota returns first team all-conference performer
Ellyssa Peterson along with second team all-conference members
McKenzie Burian, Wohlfahrt and
Mikayla Weiss on the women's side. In the men's race, second team all-conference performers
Luke Labatte and Oak join champion Kipkemboi to highlight the returners.
A highly decorated recruiting class will don the kelly green and white for the first time on Saturday. Canadians
Jadyn Keeler and
Justin Jelaca are joined by a group of highly successful group of North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin natives including multiple time Minnesota Class A champion
Geno Urbohm and
Ben Scheller who won his wave at the 2020 Twin Cities Running Company XC Showcase.
Saturday will mark the first time since the 2018 season the traditional course will be run for the women. For the last ten years the Ron Pynn Classic has been run in October with the men running 8,000m. In 2019, extensive rain the weeks leading up to the meet forced a course change and the COVID pandemic prevented the Fighting Hawks from hosting a meet in 2020.
