The Michigan Tech men’s cross country team poses after winning the 39th annual Roy Griak Invitational in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo courtesy of Michigan Tech University)

MINNEAPOLIS — The No. 27 nationally-ranked Michigan Tech men’s cross country squad earned its second Jo Rider Maroon Men’s race team victory in four years scoring 35 points at the Roy Griak Invitational on Friday afternoon. Junior Sophia Rhein came away with a fourth-place finish in the Suzy Wilson Maroon Race to lead the Tech women.

The 35 point team victory for the men’s team tied the best team score since the 1993 Augustana (S.D.) team that also needed 35 points to win the meet.

“The men showed us today what we really are,” Huskies coach Robert Young said. “We know the course is a tough one, so we planned to be conservative early and aggressive late in the race. The results show how clearly they embraced this being in sixth or seventh at the mile, but finishing well clear of the field by the end. It’s good to have (Michael) Dennis back in the Black and Gold and he ran a great race to score just 1 point for us.

“We had hoped to see a bigger step from our women today but I suspect we were just a little more fatigued than we anticipated. We’ve been working hard in practice so we can have our best races in championship season. It seemed like we were just a bit off from the challenge of this recent training. We trust that eventually this hard work will yield the results we want, even if today wasn’t as good as it could have been had we been fresher.”

In 31 years of the men’s Maroon race (DII and DIII), just two teams have scored 35 points for a team victory with the first one coming in 1993 by Augustana (S.D.).

Former Michigan Tech cross country All-American and current 10,000m track school record holder, Drew Kolodge, won the men’s race in 25:22. Dennis claimed runner-up honors in his first race as a Husky this season with a time of 26:39. In total, four Huskies were among the top-10 en route to one of the lowest point totals in Maroon race history.

“I’m really happy with how our guys raced today,” Huskies assistant coach Luke Moore added. “We had a lot of really good days on the course. We caught up to a lot of the teams that had too aggressive of a start. Dennis had a great day and I’m happy to see that we are back to full stride with him leading the charge. Our men’s pack was very tight and that shows good strength for races to come.”

Dennis narrowly improved on his time from last season but moved up 21 places from 2024, residing in the top-five spots throughout the 8k race. Colman Lenci was in 13th-place at the mile and moved up to sixth-place to be the second Husky across the finish line in 26:47. The duo of Zeb Swager and Brady Ketzenberger executed their race plans perfectly with Swager going from 88th through the first mile to eighth-place by the finish in 26:51.6 while Ketzenberger (26:54.8) passed the mile in 96-place before finishing in 10th-place just over three seconds behind his teammate.

Senior Callen Carrier (27:03.8) and freshman Eddie Snider (27:05.9), a native of St. Paul, Minnesota, finished in 15th and 16th-place respectively, both moving over 80 places.

Eagan, Minnesota, native Michael Marshall was the seventh Huskies to cross the finish line in 27:14.9, moving up 92 spots from the first mile to the finish.

Rhein was the low-stick for the women who claimed sixth as a team with 161 points in a field of 24 teams. Rhein’s place is a two-place improvement from last year and was among the top-four spots the entire race en route to her 23:14.3 effort.

Wayzata, Minnesota, native Ingrid Halverson was the second Husky to complete the 6k course taking 32nd-place in 24:26 after going through the first mile in 97th-place.

Alisa Teige (24:30.8) and Hannah DuPuis (24:32.5) moved up the entire race-a theme of the day for most of the Huskies, as both recorded top-40 finishes claiming 36th and 38th place, respectively.

Bridget Burns (24:59.5) rounded out the top-five for the Black & Gold, dipping under 25 minutes for 53rd-place overall.

Alex Li (25:06.7) and Ingrid Seagren (25:14.2) placed 58th and 65th, respectively, to finish within the top-seven on the squad.

“Julia Moxey had a great race,” Moore said. “She moved up though the field with confidence. I think this is the first step towards a lot of good things to come.”

Up next

The Huskies will be back in action next month traveling to the Lewis Crossover hosted by Lewis on October 11.