SIOUX FALLS, S.D.—Junior
Abby Ripperda became the third Coyote to win an individual title at the Augustana Twilight in five years, leading South Dakota to its fourth-straight women's team title on Friday night at Yankton Trail Park.
Ripperda edged out Iowa Western's Faith Chepengat at the finish to capture the Augustana Twilight in 16 minutes, 47 seconds, for 5,000 meters. The time breaks
Megan Billington's meet record and Coyote course record from last season. Ripperda also clocked faster than her track personal best for 5,000 meters of 16:49.83 from last spring. Perhaps the most impressive feat is her improvement from this same meet a year ago, dropping more than two minutes off her time along with improving 36 places in the field.
Senior
Kianna Stewart placed sixth in the field after crossing the finish line in 17:39.20. Stewart improved 30 seconds from 2018 and moved up six places to finish as the Coyotes' second runner. She clocked the fifth-fastest time by a Coyote on the course.
The Coyotes packed it in shortly after, sweeping 10th through 14th place in the field. Junior
Laura Nelson paced the group with a clocking of 17:47.91. Sophomore
Maddie Lavin finished 11th in 17:50.75 and junior
Kelsi Kearney rounded out the scorers in 12th with a time of 18:03.19. Junior
Jonna Bart and sophomore
Haley Arens took 13th and 14th, respectively, to wrap up USD's top-seven.
South Dakota totaled 40 points to win its fourth title. Runner-up Nebraska tallied 67 points while host Augustana took third with 98 points. The only other Summit League team in the field, Omaha, finished sixth with 179 points.
Freshman
Clayton Whitehead paced the Coyote men for the second-straight week. He finished 16th with a time of 19:32.10 for the four-mile course. It marks the fourth-fastest time by a Coyote on the course.
Sophomore
Merga Gemeda was the second South Dakota runner across the line in 19:38.21 for 19th place.
Other Coyote scorers included freshman
Alec Atwood in 48th place (20:16.20), senior
Abdinasir Abdi in 52nd place (20:20.99) and freshman
Braden Peters (20:28.17). This marks the second-straight week that this trio of freshman has found itself in the scoring lineup.
Freshman
Charlie Babcock and junior
Seth Iverson were the Coyotes' pushers on Friday night, placing 70th and 78th, respectively.
South Dakota took sixth in the men's race with 178 points. Nebraska took home the team title with 69 points.
This marked the ninth-annual Augustana Twilight meet held at Yankton Trail Park. South Dakota cross country has competed in five of the nine meets. The field sizes of this year's college race consisted of 306 women and 321 men.
South Dakota returns to action on Saturday, Sept. 21, with the Woody Greeno Invitational held in Lincoln, Nebraska.
