Kearney, Neb. – The Nebraska-Kearney cross country teams were second (men) and fourth (women) at the annual Fort Hays State Tiger Open Saturday in Victoria, Kan.

The women's 5k and men's 8k featured "Gold" (NCAA) and "Black" (non-NCAA) races. There were 17 women's squad in the Gold race and 15 on the men's side.

This was the final regular season meet for the Lopers and the time of year squad begin to battle the injury bug. UNK is fairly strong in that area with only redshirt senior Zoe Ritz (Comstock) sitting out.

Ranked ninth in the Central, the Loper women tallied 119 points to trail only Westminster of Utah (99), NAIA power St. Mary of Kansas (111) and national power house Adams State (113). Westminster came in ranked ninth in the South Central, USM fifth in NAIA with top-ranked ASU running some of its reserves today. Kearney out paced No. 25 Northwest Missouri and six other MIAA rivals.

On the men's side, UNK came in ranked fifth in the Central and tallied 90 points to trail only third-ranked ASU (84). The Grizzlies also sat out some key runners. The Lopers bested, among others, No. 21 Northwest Missouri and NAIA No. 2 USM.

McCool redshirt junior Luke Stuckey was 11th (eight team points) in a time of 24:32.26 with Iowa redshirt freshman Myles Bach right behind him in 15th place (24:40.20; 12 points). Andrew Amor of New Mexico Highlands led the field of nearly 200 runners with a 23:45.85.

The women saw Iowa redshirt senior Maddie Bach finish eighth thanks to an effort of 18:10.04. Omaha redshirt sophomore Hannah Pollan (26th/18:41.93) and Imperial redshirt senior Destiny Reinke (27th; 18:42.55) were the Lopers next two finishers. Northwest's Caroline Cunningham was the winner in 17:33.71 with the field numbering nearly 190. 

The other scorers for the UNK men were Ainsworth redshirt sophomore Ben Arens (13 points; 24:44.74), Juniata redshirt junior Justin Vrooman (24 points; 25:16.11) and Holdrege redshirt junior Gavin Klein (33 points; 25:27.35). Finally, the balanced Loper women three finish between 31st-36th place. They were Hooper redshirt freshman Elizabeth Polk (18:49.32), Kearney redshirt freshman Grace Bonsall (18:57.24) and Ulysses redshirt junior Sinclare Fiala (18:59.83.).

The MIAA Championships come to the Kearney C.C. on October 23rd.