DuPuis 24th for Women; Dennis 32nd for Men
ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – The Michigan Tech cross country squads completed the highly contested Lewis Crossover with a 17th-place finish from the women’s team and a 13th-place finish from the men’s on Saturday afternoon. Freshman Hannah DuPuis had a breakthrough day as the top-finisher for the women’s squad with a 24th-place finish, as senior Michael Dennis led the men’s team with a 32nd-place finish.
No. 15 Chico State claimed the women’s race with 100 points, finishing 40 points ahead of host No. 9 Lewis as Biola, who entered the meet not ranked in the top-30, having the team performance of the day for third-place with 180 points.
No. 6 Colorado Christian paced the men’s race with 106 points, with No. 10 Saginaw Valley State claiming runner-up honors with 143 points, as No. 15 Western Washington took third-place with 163 points.
“The Lewis crossover is such a competitive meet and is such a great chance to test ourselves against the top talent in Division II,” said Tech head coach Robert Young. “Learning to compete well in fields like this is an important skill and I’m certain that lessons we take away from today will benefit us in the future. In fields as dense as these ones, even slightly off days get punished because a few seconds represent so many places and points. We had enough athletes have medium-quality days and our team placement suffered compared to what we are capable of. We had hoped for better, but we will grow from this and come back better next time out. When considering the results in the national qualifying conversation, we didn’t do much to help ourselves earn an at-large bid. But I also don’t think we will end up being hurt too badly either.
“We have some amazing talent in our freshmen classes and Hannah DuPuis broke through today, really showing what she can do. Placing that well in that strong of a field is a real accomplishment and we’re so excited to see where she can develop to. Eddie Snider also had himself a day as a scorer for our men. We’ve seen him running well all season so far, but today felt like another level. Hopefully, he just keeps getting better and better as we enter the championship season. While we often focus on how our team scores, seeing our depth racing well makes me confident in our future.”
The women’s squad bested nine teams from the region with a point total of 447, just four points shy of No. 30 Colorado Christian, finishing 17th in a race that featured 36 teams.
In just her third race for the black & Gold, DuPuis turned in a top-25 performance with her 24th-place finish in a field of over 330 runners, leading the women’s team in a new personal-best time of 22:05.05. Junior Sophia Rhein bettered her placement from a season ago with a top-50 finish, scoring 46 points in a time of 22:26.13. Veteran Claire Endres was the third Husky through the finish line in 130th place (23:21.69). Senior Ingrid Halverson was right behind Endres, taking 131st place in 23:22.11. Junior Alisa Teige was the fifth runner for the Huskies, shaving over 30 seconds off her time from the previous season and finishing 79 places higher, with a time of 23:29.57, good for 141st place.
Freshman Brooke Marquardt (23:43.09) and sophomore Alex Li (24:03.57) rounded out the top seven for the Black & Gold.
The No. 19 nationally-ranked men of Michigan Tech scored 378 points for 13th-place in a race that showcased 37 teams, besting eight teams in the Midwest Region. The top-five had a spread of 46 seconds with an average 8k time of 25:10.
Senior Michael Dennis was the low-stick for MTU, bettering his time and place from a season ago placing 32nd overall in a personal-best time of 24:39.06. The next three Huskies also had time and place improvements from the 2024 season. Senior Callen Carrier was the second finisher for Tech, shaving five seconds from last year’s time, clocking 25:11.96 for a 13-place jump to 78th-place. Colman Lenci finished 122nd last season and ran 25:14 for 85th-place with sophomore Brady Ketzenberger, who took 236th in last year’s meet, claimed 93rd-place today just seconds behind Lenci in a time of 25:19.22.
Snider, the freshman, continues to impress as the fifth Husky finisher, cracking the top-100 with a 97th-place finish in 25:25.44. Zeb Swager was right behind Snider in 98th-place, running a time of 25:26.15. Veteran Michael Marshall improved 23 places from 2024 with his best time in four seasons at the meet in 25:29.91.
Up Next
The Huskies will be back in action on Friday, hosting the Husky Invitational at the Tech Trails. The men will race at 3:30 p.m. with the women to follow at 4:15 p.m.
