The University of Minnesota Duluth women and men made their cross country debuts Saturday morning and both did so by capturing team championships at the Campus Quest VI on the UMD campus.

Competing under unusually warm and humid weather conditions, the Bulldog women placed six runners among the top seven finishers, including sophomore All-American Morgan Place, who completed the 5K event with a time of 18:17 -- 25 seconds better than her course record from a year ago. UMD freshman Alyssa Salava of North St. Paul, Minn., captured runnerup honors, finishing 39 second behind Place while the junior quartet of Rachael Stack (19:34), Bridget Hines (19:38), Carrie Wardell (19:43) and Whitney Hines took the the No. 4 through No. 7 spots. The Bulldogs posted a team score of 18 to easily outsdistance the rest of the four-school field -- Lakehead University (54), the College of St. Scholastica (65) and the University of Wisconsin-Superior (no team score). A total of 75 individuals took part in the women's race.

On the men's side, senior captain Zach Varty led the way for UMD, taking fourth among the varsity competitors with a 6K clocking of 28:00. He was followed by junior Erik Escher (5th place; 28:07), sophomore Kyle Larson (8th; 28:35), Kyle Peterson (10th; 28:41), a transfer from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, and fellow junior Paul Kimpling (12th; 28:44). Former Bulldog standout and current UMD volunteer assistant coach Eric Atkinson was the top runner overall, crossing the finish line in 27:08. The final team standings were as follows: 1. UMD (39), 2. Lakehead University (50), 3. Wisconsin-Superior (57) and 4. St. Scholastica (82)

The Bulldog men and women will head to Northfield, Minn. next Saturday (Sept. 19) for the St. Olaf College Invitational.