STILLWATER, Okla.—South Dakota junior
Abby Ripperda earned all-Midwest Region honors on Friday morning at the NCAA Midwest Regional.
Ripperda placed eighth in the field of 235 to garner all-Midwest Region honors. She becomes the third Coyote woman to earn all-region honors, joining
Megan Billington (2018) and Amber Eichkorn (2014, 2015). She ties Eichkorn for the highest finish (eighth) by a Coyote at the regional meet. Ripperda completed the 6,000-meter course in 20 minutes, 52.3 seconds. The time is three seconds off her personal best from the Bradley Classic.
Senior
Kianna Stewart wrapped up her collegiate career with a 42-place finish in 21:45.3. The time is her second-fastest at the distance this fall.
Juniors
Jonna Bart,
Laura Nelson and
Kelsi Kearney rounded out the scoring five. Bart placed 60th in 22:05.1. Nelson took 112th in 22:45.6 and Kearney finished 140th with a time of 23:07.7.
The Coyote pushers on Friday were sophomore
Haley Arens and freshman
Helen Gould. Arens completed the course in 23:25.9 and Gould clocked 23:36.4.
South Dakota finished 14th in the field with 355 points. Illinois won the women's race with 108 points, while Tulsa earned the second automatic bid from the region as the runner-up with 123 points.
Sophomore
Merga Gemeda led the Coyote men with a 49th-place finish. Gemeda clocked a personal best of 32:01.6 for the men's first 10,000-meter race of the fall.
A quartet of freshman completed South Dakota's scoring five.
Clayton Whitehead placed 90th with a time of 32:46.7.
Charlie Babcock clocked 33:39.0 for 134th place.
Alec Atwood and
Braden Peters finished 160th and 166th, respectively. Atwood completed the course in 34:21.3 and Peters clocked 34:32.9.
South Dakota's pushers were junior
Kallo Arno and senior
Abdinasir Abdi. Arno clocked a personal best of 34:48.3 while Abdi finished in 34:49.8.
The Coyote men were 20th in the field with 573 points. Tulsa and Iowa State finished first and second, respectively, to earn the automatic team bids to the NCAA Championships.
The top two-teams from each of the nine regions earn automatic bids to the NCAA Championships, while the remaining 13 teams are selected by an at-large process. Additionally, the top-four individuals from each region not a qualifying team earn automatic bids to the NCAA Championships. Two additional individuals will be selected at-large.
