LINCOLN, Neb.—South Dakota fourth-year junior Merga Gemeda placed third to highlight the Coyotes in action at the Jay Dirksen/Woody Greeno Invitational held Saturday morning at Mahoney Golf Course.
 
Gemeda established himself in the lead pack early and clocked a career best 8,000-meter time of 24:23.7 on the course. He was more than a minute faster than his time from the meet in 2019. He was just five seconds behind the Red Division winner, Jed Helker of Wichita State.
 
Third-year sophomore Charlie Babcock was the second Coyote across the line in a career best time of 24:58.9. Babcock took 12th place. He finished the course 90 seconds faster than two years ago.
 
The Coyote women finished as a pack on Saturday, with the scoring five finishing just 26 seconds apart. It was the second-best spread among teams in the field, with the Iowa women finishing within 13 seconds of one another.
 
Third-year sophomore Ella Byers was at the front of the Coyote pack, leading the way with a 19th-place finish. She completed the 5,000-meter course in 18:11.9. She dropped 44 seconds off her time from the season opener. Second-year freshmen McKenna Herrmann and Abrielle Jirele were just behind in 20th and 22nd place, respectively. Herrmann crossed the finish line in 18:19.9 and Jirele clocked 18:22.8.
 
Third-year sophomore Helen Gould was almost a minute faster from 2019, finishing in 34th place with a time of 18:38.0. Freshman Melanie Pankow was a tenth of a second behind, clocking 18:38.1 for 35th place.
 
Nebraska natives Renee Thompson and Lizzy Kramer made USD's top seven for the first time. Thompson, of Papillion, clocked 18:44.0 for 37th and Kramer, a Lincoln Pius X graduate, recorded a time of 18:53.3 for 40th.
 
The Coyote women, competing without its top two finishers from the Augustana Twilight, finished fourth in the Red Division team race by a score of 112 points. Iowa won the team title with 38 points, host Nebraska finished runner-up in 41 points and Northern Colorado was third with 108 points.
 
Joining Gemeda and Babcock in the men's scoring five were third-year sophomore Alec Atwood, second-year freshman Jarek Glenn and fourth-year sophomore Jacob Waymire.
 
Atwood clocked 25:57.8 for 36th place, more than 30 seconds faster than his time from 2019. Glenn completed the course in 26:26.2 for 46th place and Waymire finished 49th with a time of 26:30.0.
 
Freshman Mason Sindelar finished just behind Waymire, clocking 26:32.5 for 50th place. Third-year sophomore Braden Peters clocked 27:23.6 in 59th.
 
USD's men finished sixth in the Red Division team race with a score of 131 points. Wichita State took home the men's team title and Air Force finished runner-up.
 
The Coyotes return to action in just six days at the Roy Griak Invitational in Minneapolis, Minnesota.