Kearney, Neb. – The Nebraska Kearney cross country teams finished third (men) and fifth (women) at the 2024 MIAA Championships Saturday afternoon in St. Joseph, Mo.

Twelve men's teams ran an 8k with 13 women's squads following with a 6k race on the Griffon Cross Country Course. The Top 20 individual finishers on each side earn All-MIAA honors (1st-team/places 1-10; honorable mention/places 11-20).

UNK had seven all-league honorees in York freshman Kassidy Stuckey (11th), David City senior Payton Davis (12th), Blair freshman Reece Ewoldt (13th), Blair redshirt senior Sam Lueders (14th), Kansas senior Brett Schoenhofer (17th), Central City junior Ella Buhlke (19th) and Omaha redshirt junior Nick Abdalla (20th). Schoenhofer and Abdalla are repeat honorees. 

The regionally-ranked men tallied 99 points to trail only No. 16 Northwest Missouri (47) and defending champion and No. 18 Pittsburg State (76). The Bearcats won its first league title in 52 years. UNK had seven entrees finish in the top 46 with the field consisting of 106 finishers. Northwest's Grant Bradley (23:31.1) won by nearly six seconds. 

The top efforts for UNK came from Davis (24:14.0), Lueders (24:15.9) and Schoenhofer (24:24.2). Finally, the Lopers came in ahead of No. 23 Washburn and two other regionally-ranked squads.

The short-handed 17th-ranked women scored 97 points to be right behind No. 29 Northwest (83). No. 10 Pitt State won its sixth title in the last seven years (55) with No. 22 Rogers State being the runner up (70) and No. 20 Fort Hays State third (75).

Emily Diercks of Hays (21:30.0) paced the field of 106 finishers with UNK's top three times coming from Stuckey (22:05.5), Ewoldt (22:11.3) and Buhlke (22:14.8).

Prior to the race, Fremont senior Mara Hemmer and Firth redshirt sophomore Tanner Cooper were honored for being this year's Mammoth "A" Game Winners in MIAA cross country. Hemmer has a 4.00 cumulative GPA (100 hours through spring 2024) as a Biology major with Davis also a 4.00 student (85.0 hours through spring 2024) majoring in Health Sciences.

The Central Regional is set for Nov. 9 in Joplin, Mo.