Park Rapids’ Lydia Kantonen capped off her junior season as a member of the University of North Dakota women’s cross country team as the Fighting Hawks’ No. 5 runner at the NCAA Division I Midwest Regional at Stillwater, Oklahoma, on Friday, Nov. 15.
Kantonen completed the 6K course in 23:44 for 178th place overall (172nd in the team standings) as UND placed 19th out of 33 teams with 570 points. That was the Fighting Hawks’ best showing at the Midwest Regional since moving up to Division I. UND’s previous best showing was 22nd place in 2012.
Illinois captured the team title with 108 points with Tulsa (123) and the University of Minnesota (130) following. Iowa State’s Cailie Logue led the 231-runner field in 20:20.
At the Summit League Championships at Fargo on Nov. 2, Kantonen was the Fighting Hawks’ No. 5 runner with a 6K time of 23:30 for 36th place overall and 31st place in the team standings. UND finished fourth with 84 points. North Dakota State University took first in the eight-team field with 45 points while South Dakota (48) and South Dakota State (73) followed. Kelby Anderson of NDSU led the 55-runner field with a winning time of 20:35.
In the season-opening Bison Open at NDSU on Aug. 30, UND finished fourth with 100 points as South Dakota led the five-team field with 30 points. Kantonen was the No. 4 runner for the Fighting Hawks with a 4K time of 15:17 for 29th place overall. Anderson set the pace with a winning time of 13:38 in the 81-runner field.
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Kantonen was also UND’s No. 4 runner at the SDSU Classic on Sept. 13 by placing 25th overall with a 5K time of 19:59. The Fighting Hawks finished third in the five-team meet with 69 points as SDSU took first with 31 points. Anderson again took first against the 86 runners in 18:03.
Kantonen didn’t run as UND placed 14th out of 16 teams at the Roy Griak Division I Invitational at the University of Minnesota on Sept. 28 and second at the eight-team Ron Pynn Classic at Grand Forks on Oct. 19 with 51 points.
