Lumberjacks Continue Conference Dominance Under First-Year Coach Jarred Cornfield; Colin Sahlman, Hayley Burns Capture Individual Titles

By Keenan Gray of DyeStat

INTERVIEWS|PHOTOS|RESULTS

The Northern Arizona men's and women's cross country teams ran away with the individual and team titles for a fifth consecutive season at the Big Sky Cross Country Championships on Saturday in Bozeman, Mont.

The No. 17 NAU women bettered its own conference championship record for consecutive titles won, winning a seventh title dating back to the 2019 season. The last two conference meets witnessed perfect scores from the Lumberjacks, but this year's score was one off at 16 points.

Hayley Burns won the individual title in 16 minutes, 5.70 seconds for the 5-kilometer race, leading seven NAU individuals in the top 20, including six in the top 10 and four in the top four. Burns is also the 11th NAU woman to win the individual title.

Ava Mitchell finished second in 16:14.3, Keira Moore finished third in 16:22.1, Kiki Vaughn finished fourth in 16:28.9 and Payton Godsey finished sixth in 16:42.3 for NAU's scorers.

Weber State finished second with 80 points, featuring Hailey Low (seventh) and Audrey Cazier (10th) in the top 10.

Host Montana State finished third with 83 points.

Colin Sahlman extended NAU's individual title streak to 10 years, winning the men's 8k race in 23:41.3 to lead the No. 7 Lumberjacks to 20 points and a fifth consecutive team title.

Nine of NAU's racers all finished in the top 20, six finished in the top 10 and four in the top five. Manny Perez took third in 23:58.4, Erik Le Roux earned fourth in 23:59.5, Cael Grotenhuis finished fifth in 24:01.4 and Ethan Godsey placed seventh in 24:15 in NAU's top five.

Peter Visser of Weber State finished second in 23:45.5, leading the Wildcats to second as a team with 58 points.

Montana State, behind Owen Smith's sixth-place finish, took third with 76 points.