The University of Minnesota Duluth men and women made their 2010 cross country debuts Saturday morning and both did so by capturing team championships at the Campus Quest VII on the UMD campus.

The Bulldog women placed four runners among the top five finishers, including junior All-American Morgan Place, who completed the 5K event with a time of 18:11.1 -- six seconds better than her course record from a year ago. UMD senior Bridget Hines captured runnerup honors, finishing 50 seconds behind Place while twin sister Whitney Hines was third at 19:04.4 and freshman Jacque Thaemert was fifth (19:35.7). Junioir Michelle SanCartier (19:47.6) and rookie Hannah Jocelyn placed eighth and ninth, respectively, for the Bulldogs, who posted a team score of 18 to easily outsdistance the rest of the four-school field -- the College of St. Scholastica (57) , Lakehead University (61), the University of Wisconsin-Superior (120), Northland College (152), Finlandia University (159) and Gogebic Community College (no team score). A total of 82 individuals completed the women's race, including alumni from UMD and St. Scholastica.

On the men's side, senior Erik Escher led the way for UMD, taking third overall and second among the varsity competitors with an 8K clocking of 27:23.1. He was followed by junior Nick Nygaard (4th place; 27:28.3), sophomore Cole Toepfer (8th; 28:00.7), junior Jared Johnston (9th; 28:10.5) and sophomore Ryan Eason (10th; 28:15.1). Former Bulldog standout Eric Atkinson was the top runner overall, crossing the finish line in 27:02.6. The final team standings were as follows: 1. UMD (34), 2. UMD Alumnni (47). 3. Lakehead University (78), 4. St. Scholastica (97), 5. Wisconsin-Superior (125), 6. Northland College (168) and Gogebic College (182).

The Bulldog men and women will head to Northfield, Minn. next Saturday (Sept. 18) for the St. Olaf College Invitational.