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S.D. – Dakota State (S.D.) will be the host for this year’s North Star Athletic Association (NSAA) Cross Country Conference Championship meets on Saturday morning at the Madison Country Club, located on west side of Madison on highways 34 and 81. The postseason race gives the chance for teams and runners to qualify for the NAIA Cross Country National Championships to be held in Charlotte, N.C. on Nov. 21.
About NSAA Cross Country Conference Championships
Six North Star Athletic Association members, including host-team Dakota State (S.D.), Dickinson State (N.D.), Jamestown (N.D.), Valley City State (N.D.), Viterbo (Wis.) and Waldorf (Iowa) are slated to compete in the meet on Saturday. The women’s 5K race will field five teams (Waldorf do not have a women’s cross country team this year) and kicks off the race at 11 a.m. The men’s 8K race includes all six NSAA members, scheduling for a 11:45 a.m. shotgun.
Live Coverage of the NSAA Cross Country Championships
The North Star Athletic Association Cross Country Championships will be feature a live timing results system. Go towww.results.dakotatiming.com, which is the official individual and team scores once the last runner crosses the finish line. In addition, go to www.scoreboard.dakotatiming.com, which is the unofficial real-time individual results as each runner crosses the finish line mat. All links will be available on the DSU Athletics’ website home page.
NSAA Cross Country Championships Awards Ceremony
The NSAA Cross Country Championships Awards Ceremony and trophy presentation will be held at the DSU Fieldhouse (1302 N. Washington Ave.), starting at 1 p.m., free to public. All-Conference runners, who place in the top 10 in the race, along with Champions of Character award and team champion trophy presentation will be recognized during the awards ceremony. The awards ceremony will available through live video webcast on https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC37qDcInG0tgZaN8nUHn_Sw/live.
NSAA’s Automatic Team Bid
This year will be the first year that the North Star Athletic Association will have a representative in the NAIA Cross Country National Championships. The winner of each race will receive an automatic bid to the national meet, which is held at McAlpine Creek Park in Charlotte, N.C. on Saturday, Nov. 21. There will be also individual runners qualifiers to the nationals. Last year in the NAIA Unaffiliated NSAA/Frontier conference qualifying meet, the University of Jamestown (N.D.) women’s cross country team won their first-ever NSAA conference team title. Dakota State (S.D.) captured the first-ever NSAA Men’s Cross Country team title.
2014 NSAA Cross Country Championships Recap
The 2014 NSAA Cross Country Championships was held at Amend Park in Billings, Mont. as part of NAIA’s Unaffiliated qualifying group with the Frontier Conference. Jamestown (N.D.) won the women’s title with a low score of 29. Austyn Copp of Dickinson State (N.D.) captured the individual title with a time of 19:22. On the men’s side, Dakota Sate (S.D.) won the NSAA conference title with a score of 41, edging out Valley City State (N.D.) with 46 points. Richard Langdeaux of Valley City State (N.D.) claimed the individual title with a time of 26 minutes, 41 seconds.
Honorary Meet Starter Buzz Stevenson
Former long-time cross country/track head coach and DSU Hall of Famer Buzz Stevenson will be the honorary meet starter for the NSAA cross country championship meets on Saturday morning. He will be performing the shot gun at the starting line in both women’s and men’s races. In Stevenson’s years at DSU, he has coached two first-ever national champions in the track and field programs—Desa Rae Cleveland (Doyle) in women’s high jump and Andy Coy in the men’s 1000-meter run. Over the years, Stevenson has coached a total of 60-plus NAIA All-American status and over 100 All-Conference performances. He had earned South Dakota Intercollegiate Conference Coach-of-the-Year 14 times and Great Plains Regional Cross Country Coach-of-the-Year twice.