BROOKINGS – On Saturday, the South Dakota State men’s cross country team looks to defend its Summit League title in Omaha, Neb., while the women look to win their first title since the 2008 season and defend their individual championship MVP for the third consecutive year.
If the men win the title this weekend, it will be the first time that a team has three-peated since the 2006-08 seasons in the league. No active team has won the title more than once. Seven-time Summit League Coach of the Year Rod DeHaven is back for his 14th season as head coach.
“We return everybody on the men’s side,” DeHaven said at fall media day. “We also have had one of the best recruiting classes we’ve had here at SDSU.”
The only difference this season was the absence of a home meet. The SDSU Classic is usually held on the weekend of Sept. 29, but that was the same weekend as the Roy Griak this season. All other weekends were full at the Edgebrook, where it’s taken place in recent years.
“It’s a bummer we don’t have a home meet,” DeHaven said. “But we do have an extra meet at Nebraska.”
Besides not having a home meet, the Jacks have been dominant again this season. Jackrabbit cross country alum Sebastian Sowada doesn’t think not having a home meet will slow them down at all.
“It’s like a refresher to be able to run at the SDSU Classic,” Sowada said. “It was a small meet that our families could come and watch, but other than that I don’t think it will affect them in any way this season.”
Sowada didn’t begin his career here at SDSU. He ran his first two seasons at St. Cloud State, and when they cut their programs, Sowada transferred here.
“When they cut the programs, I started looking around and nothing really stood out,” Sowada said. “Then I looked at SDSU and saw they had a really good math program, so I contacted Rod and he said it should work.”
Other than having a really good math program, Sowada was impressed at how successful the Jacks had been and wanted to try to contribute to that success. And that he did, playing a role in the past two SDSU conference titles.
Another Jack who played a role in the back-to-back titles is junior Chase Cayo. Cayo has been one of SDSU’s top runners in recent years. Earlier this week, Cayo talked about the preparation that goes into the week before the Summit League Championships on the Justin Sell Show.
“You just have to go into it being the freshest you can,” Cayo said on the Justin Sell Show. “At this point in the season, everyone’s kind of hurting so you just have to focus on that.” Cayo believes they have a good chance at a three-peat with Micah Mather, Gabe Peters and Lukas Nelson all looking really well.
As for himself, Cayo said earlier in the season that it would be a dream come true to become an All-American.
“Individually, I want to repeat as league championship MVP and athlete of the year by winning the individual title,” Cayo said. “Then I am hoping to be a top-five finisher in the region and get my ticket punched to the national meet. It would be a dream come true to become an All-American – that would be the ultimate dream goal.”
Cayo looks to continue his dominance in the Summit League as he won the league’s individual championship title, was named Championship MVP and won athlete of the year last season.
As a team this season, the Jacks have three of the top five times in the 8K – Cayo (first, 24 minutes, 48.5 seconds), Kyle Burdick (third, 24:58.0) and Cayo (fourth, 25:01.1) – and seven out of the top 10 times.
At the Roy Griak, a national meet, Cayo placed 14th overall and first on the team with a time of 25:01.01). Cayo also placed first on the team and 69th overall with a time of 24:48.5 at the Pre-National-Cardinal Seeded.
With the Jacks having one of the best recruiting classes they’ve had at SDSU, it doesn’t seem like they will be going anywhere anytime soon.
The women will start at 10 a.m. Saturday with the men scheduled for 11 a.m. at Miracle Hill Golf Course in Omaha.
To follow along with the live results, go to live.athletic.net/meets/1627 or tune into the Summit League’s Facebook Live.