Huskies Men finish seventh, Women 17th
KENOSHA, Wis. – The Michigan Tech cross country squads competed at the NCAA Division II Midwest Region Championships highlighted by a 24th-place individual finish by senior Michael Dennis at the Wayne E. Dannehl National Cross Country Course hosted by Parkside on Saturday.
The women’s team took 17th overall in the team race with 412 points, three points back of Ferris State, as the No. 30 nationally-ranked men’s team claimed seventh overall with 212 points, five shy of fifth place.
“Today was a tough one for us. It’s a bummer because we know how good these teams really are but today’s results don’t quite show it,” said Michigan Tech head coach Robert Young. “This women’s team took significant strides for the program this fall, but with a couple key pieces missing it’s tough to make up those points. We did have some highlight performances from Alex Li as she took another step from her GLIAC performance. She just knows how to bring it in championship season. Alisa Teige also had a big day. We didn’t know that she would even be racing for us until late in the week and she stepped up extremely well.
“It’s tough to come out on the losing end of such a tight mens race. This group has so much talent but we struggled to sync our best days together more than once this fall and unfortunately it happened again today. That challenge can be frustrating but is also part of the beauty of our sport and why being a true team is so important. As usual our depth showed with guys like Brady Ketzenberger, Sawyer Fowler, and Eddie Snider stepping up and having great runs but I’m skeptical that 7th place gives us much of a chance for an at large bid to the national meet.”
No. 2 nationally-ranked Grand Valley State claimed the women’s title with 25 points as No. 5 Cedarville (87 points) and No. 11 Lewis (90 points) took second and third in the team standings. The No. 4 nationally-ranked men of Grand Valley State won the men’s side with 44 points as No. 9 Saginaw Valley State was close behind with 52 points followed by No. 18 Lewis in third with 120 points.
Dennis, a native of Saint Johns, Michigan, native placed 24th overall in a field of 203 runners trekking the 10k course in 31:27.83 to lead the Michigan Tech men’s squad. Brady Ketzenberger impressed in his first regional meet for the Black & Gold turning out a 38th-place finish with a time of 31:50.1 as the second Michigan Tech finisher. Veteran Callen Carrier (32:00.0) and freshman Eddie Snider (32:00.6) were less than 10 seconds behind Ketzenberger, claiming 44th and 45th-place, respectively.
Sawyer Fowler took 61st in the race to round out the Huskies top-five runners with a time of 32:16.4.
Sophomores Zeb Sawger (32:37.2) and Colman Lenci (32:47.1) rounded out the top-seven placing 80th and 89th in the field.
Sophomore Alex Li led the Black & Gold claiming 67th improving 54 places from a season ago, running 22:48.5, a new personal record. Veteran Ingrid Halverson was 10 spots back placing four spots higher than her 2024 result running a time of 22:58.7. Alisa Teige took 87th-place in her regional debut running 23:05.8, seconds off of her personal-best. Senior Ingrid Seagren, making her second regional squad of her career, took 88th, bettering her freshman year result by 11 spots with a time of 23:06.3. Senior Claire Endres rounded out the Huskies top-five with a time of 23:12.8 for 93rd-place.
Freshman Brooke Marquardt claimed 110th-place in her regional debut clocking in at 23:27.9.
