Nico Young, Elise Stearns Keep Momentum Building For NAU With Team-Driven Individual Victories

By Keenan Gray for DyeStat

PHOTOS | INTERVIEWS

For the 19th time in program history, Northern Arizona swept the Big Sky Conference men’s and women’s cross country team championships, with the Lumberjacks coming away with victories Friday at the Fairways Golf Course in Cheney, Wash.

The third-ranked NAU men picked up a much needed-win after finishing third two weeks ago at the Nuttycombe Invitational in Wisconsin as they beat 21st-ranked Montana State by a 19-41 margin with seven runners finishing in the top 10. 

Nico Young led the way for the Lumberjacks as he secured the individual crown in a time of 22 minutes, 31.5 seconds over the 8,000-meter course. 

“We wanted to come out here and run really hard,” Young said. “We’re pretty close to the national meet so it’s really important, you know, we race this super hard. We ran a great team race.”

Trailing Young was teammate Drew Bosley, a two-time Big Sky individual champion, finishing second overall in 22:57.1 to place ahead of Montana State’s Duncan Hamilton, who was third in 23:05. 

Brodey Hasty and George Kusche both came away with personal-best efforts for NAU, finishing fourth and fifth, respectively, in 23:14.7 and 23:23.2, with Big Sky Freshman of the Year Colin Sahlman placing seventh in 23:35.9 and Ryan Raff taking ninth in 23:43.3 and Theo Quax earning 10th in 23:46.6 to round the scoring.

“In my eyes, we got first,” Bosley said. “If Northern Arizona wins, that’s it for me. That’s why I came to NAU…NAU won and that’s all I was ready to do today.”

Along with Hamilton in the top 10, Montana State saw two more of its runners in the mix as Ben Perrin finished sixth in a time of 23:23.9, followed by Matthew Richtman in 23:39.6.

Jordan MacIntosh led third-place Portland State to a score of 88 points with his 12th-place run of 24:02.5. 

Weber State took fourth, scoring 114 points behind the leading efforts of Bronson Winter’s 14th-place effort, running 24:08.3.

Idaho’s Lorenz Herrmann, the Big Sky outdoor and indoor 800 champion, finished 15th for the fifth-place Vandals in 24:15.5.

On the women’s side, NAU used an early lead pack to take control of the race and go on to defeat Idaho for the team title by a score of 22-69. 

Coming off a third-place team finish at Nuttycombe, the Lumberjacks had six runners place in the top 10 between an 18-second spread. Elise Stearns continued her much improved sophomore campaign to lead NAU by picking up her first Big Sky individual championship win, running 16:25.3 on the 5,000-meter layout.

“We kind of had a plan of going into this of running all together for at least two miles,” Stearns said. “It helps us progress into championship season. We were going to practice what it is like running together because we’re going to have to pack up in these bigger races to get team points.”

Annika Reiss earned a runner-up finish behind Stearns to complete a 1-2 finish for NAU, clocking 16:36.1, with reigning Big Sky Champion Taryn O’Neill placing fourth in 16:39.6. Rounding out top 10 finishers for the Lumberjacks were Bryn Morley (16:43) taking seventh, Jesselyn Bries (16:43) finishing eighth and Maggi Congdon (16:43.1) placing ninth. 

“We’re just building on consistency and working on team points,” Reiss said. “This was a big step for our team in the right direction.”

Maya Kobylanski and Kelsey Swenson ran personal-best efforts to finish in the top five for the second-place Vandals. Kobylanski finished third in 16:37.4 and Swenson finished fifth in 16:41.1. 

Northern Colorado’s Regina Mpigachai ran 16:41.3 to finish sixth overall for the Bears and earned Big Sky Freshman of the Year honors.

Camila Noe crossed the line first for third-place Montana State as she ran 16:43.2 to place 10th. The Bobcats scored 92 points.

Portland State took fourth with 106 points behind the leading efforts of Alexandra Barbour placing 13th in 17:07.3. 

Weber State scored 114 points to finish fifth with Rylie Lusk as the top Wildcat, running 17:08.4 to place 14th.