November 6, 2024

VALLEY CITY, N.D. – Valley City State (N.D.) is the site for the final North Star Athletic Association Cross-Country Championships, slated for Friday morning.  The 2024 conference cross-country meets will be held at Valley City Town & Country Club (500 12^th Ave. NE) in Valley City.

The men’s 8K race begins at 10:30 a.m. and the women’s 6K race follows at 11:30 a.m.  You can follow the live results of the cross-country meets on https://live.herostiming.com/meets/41841.

The racecourse will begin on the south side of the golf course, and runners will head straight north until they come to a grass pathway.  Before heading back to the golf course, runners will complete a loop that is roughly 1,200 meters in length.  When the runners are back on the golf course, they should head south and then go slightly right to circle around the south side of the course, which is where the finish line is and where they will end their first lap.  To complete the 6K, the second lap will cover the back part of the course but cut off early.  Staying on the golf course, the third lap will be a 2K loop that concludes in the same manner as the first.
There will be an award ceremony after the races.  The ceremony will be held inside the club house. 

The winner of the conference meet in each race will represent the North Star Athletic Association at the 2024 NAIA Cross Country National Championships on Friday, Nov. 22, at Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia, Mo.

There are four individual national qualifiers for the NAIA national meet.  Runners from the non-winning team and placed in the top 15 will earn a spot to run at the national meet.

Women’s
Dickinson State (N.D.) won the team title in last year’s conference meet with a low score of 45 points.  Dakota State (S.D.) came in second with 56 points. 

Valerija Curikova of DaSU won the individual 6K run title last season, edging Bellevue’s (Neb.) Madison Nelson.  Nelson had won two NSAA conference individual titles in 2021 and 2022.

The Blue Hawks won the conference title in 2021 and 2023, recently.  Both Dakota State and Dickinson Sate produced a rare tie team title during the 2019 conference meet.

The Trojans enter the cross-country conference meet Friday in the receiving votes (RV) section of the NAIA Women’s Cross Country Coaches’ Top 25 national poll.
 
Men’s
Dickinson State snapped Dakota State’s streak of NSAA’s record of five consecutive conference title.  The Blue Hawks edged the Trojans in a thrilling race, winning by one point (38-39).

Richard Marcoux of Bellevue (Neb.) won the men’s 8K individual title.  Caleb Sarsland of Dickinson State was second, while Taylor Myers of Dakota State was fourth.

Race Course Map