Results

GRINNELL, Iowa - Marie Borner (Sr., Cottage Grove, Minn.) won the individual Central Region championship for the second year in a row, and she will advance to the NCAA Cross Country National Championship meet to defend her title. The Royals placed eighth out of 26 teams, with Heather Jelen (Sr., Sioux Falls, S.D.) and Kristin Mork (Jr., Cambridge, Minn.) finishing in the top 20 as well.

Borner's time of 21:15 is nearly 13 seconds better than last year, and 47 seconds better than her time as a sophomore when she went to the national meet the first time. She will be joined by Jelen at the national meet for the second year in a row. Jelen finished in 15th place overall with a time of 22:36, just 2.4 seconds ahead of fellow Royal, Mork. Mork just barely missed securing a spot at the national meet as only the top seven individual runners from non-national meet qualifying teams get a chance to compete in the last race of the year.

Rounding out Bethel's top five runners were Kayla Jelen (Jr., Sioux Falls, S.D.) with a time of 24:05, and Alex Potter (Jr., Windom, Minn.) with a time of 24:19 on the six-kilometer course.

Borner and Jelen will now travel to Ohio to participate in the NCAA Cross Country National Championship meet, hosted by Baldwin-Wallace College, located in Berea.