For the fourth time in school history, the University of Minnesota Duluth will be represented as a team at the NCAA Division II Women's Cross Country Championships. The Bulldogs saw to it by placing fifth among 21 schools at the NCAA II Central Region Saturday morning in Denver, Colo. Meanwhile, the UMD men finished 10th out of 21 teams in their final competition of the season.

Three-time All-American senior Morgan Place was the first Bulldog to cross the finish line, completing the 6,000-meter course in a time of 23:31 and finishing in 13th place overall. The other point-getters for UMD were freshman Alexandra Rudin (24th, 24:43), freshman Amanda Boman  (37th, 24:46), sophomore Sarah Chasson (64th, 25:44) and sophomore Jacque Thaemert (66th, 25:46) and were the other point scorers for UMD. The team championship went  to Western State College (37 points), followed by Adams State College (47), Augustana College (70) and University of Mary (77). The Buldlogs posted a team score of 214.

The UMD men were  paced by senior Nick Nygaard (37th,  35:01) while  sophomore Sam Saccoman (42nd, 35:07), freshman Dan Nielsen (49th, 35:30), freshman Michael McBurney (60th, 35:56) and senior Kyle Larson (64th, 36:03) rounded out the top five Bulldog finishers in the 10,000-meter race, which consisted of 137 competitors.

The three other times the Bulldog women advanced to the NCAA II Championships as a team was in 1994, 2008, and 2009 (when they finished seventh -- their best showing  ever).  They'll get their fourth shot at nationals in two weeks (Nov. 19) in Spokane, Wash.