NORTH SIOUX CITY, S.D. – South Dakota won both individual races and the men's and women's cross country teams each claimed team titles during Friday's Briar Cliff Invitational held at Adams Nature Preserve.
 
Ella Byers, a redshirt sophomore, won the women's 5K race in a season-best 17:39.22 while redshirt junior Merga Gemeda raced to victory in the men's 8K race in 24:56.84.
 
The Coyote women placed all five scoring runners in the top 10, all running season best times, and all seven counting runners in the top 12 to score 25 points to defeat Nebraska-Kearney (55 points) and South Dakota State (68 points).
 
South Dakota men, meanwhile, placed all seven runners in the top 20 to finish with 21 points to easily outdistance NAIA's Concordia (Nebraska), who had 93 points.
 
Byers was the first Coyote across the finish line for the third consecutive meet, claiming her first collegiate individual race title.
 
Abrielle Jirele, a redshirt freshman, and Melanie Pankow, a true freshman, were the next two Coyotes across the finish line, in third and fifth place, respectively, both breaking the 18-minute barrier first time in their careers. Jirele, in the scoring five for the third straight meet, ran 17:58.88 while Pankow was right behind in 17:59.53.
 
McKenna Herrmann, a redshirt freshman, was right on the heels of Pankow, finishing sixth in a season-best 18:00.43. Herrmann and Pankow have been in the Coyotes scoring five in all four meets this fall.
 
Haley Arens, a redshirt junior, rounded out the scoring five, with a 10^th-place finish in 18:30.07.
 
The Coyotes two pushers in the race were redshirt freshman Renee Thompson and redshirt sophomore Helen Gould, coming across the line in 11^th and 12^th place, respectively. Thompson ran a season best of 18:38.66 while Gould crossed in 18:38.80.


 
A little more than a minute and a half separated the first five runners for the Coyote men in the 8K race as the top three of Gemeda, Charlie Babcock and Alec Atwood finished in that order for the fourth consecutive race.
 
Gemeda, a Sioux City, Iowa, native, running on his home course, was the lone runner in the 133-man field to break 25-minutes, while earning his first collegiate victory.
 
Babcock and Atwood, a pair of redshirt sophomores, placed second and fourth respectively as Babcock clocked 25:08.05 and Atwood a season-best 25:40.83.
 
Jarek Glenn, a redshirt freshman, finished eighth in a season best time of 25:56.46 while the final scoring runner for South Dakota was redshirt sophomore Jacob Waymire, finishing 15^th in 26:35.44.
 
Rounding out the Coyotes seven were redshirt sophomore Braden Peters, who was 17^th in 26:44.01 and freshman Mason Sindelar, who placed 20^th in 27:02.77.
 
The Coyote men and women return to the course on Friday, October 15 participating in the Bradley Pink Classic in Peoria, Illinois.