With its point-scoring runners all placing among the top 27 finishers, the University of Minnesota Duluth turned in its highest Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Championship finish in seven years Saturday in Moorhead, Minn.

The Bulldogs came in second at the 12-team event, taking a backseat only to nine-time defending champion Augustana University. The Vikings posted a team score of 36 points while UMD (98 points), the University of Sioux Falls (109 pts.), the University of Mary (121 pts.), Minnesota State University-Mankato (129 pts.) and Minnesota State University-Moorhead (137 pts.) were next.

"I am extremely proud of our guys' effort today," said  head coach Paul Nisius, who also directed the Bulldogs to a runnerup finish in his first year (2010) at the UMD helm. "Our depth was a a big factor for us. With the exception of Augustana, we had all seven of our runners cross the finish line ahead of every other team's fifth runner."

Just as he has done in every meet this season, senior Cody Sedbrook was the top Bulldog individual finisher, taking 12th out of 111 runners with an 8,000-meter time of 25:08.5. He was followed by  junior Isaac Overmyer (17th place; 25:22.0), junior Luke Lahr (21st place; 25:41.7), senior Henry Jessen (25th place: 25:41.7) and senior Grant Pulver (27th place; 25:44.9).  Senior Blake Anderson (28th place; 25:46.5) and senior Adam Armbruster (33rd place; 26:01.7) rounded out the top seven placers for the Bulldogs. University of Sioux Falls sophomore Mason Phillips claimed the individual title, clocking in at 24:06.6. Both Sedbrook and Overmyer received All-NSIC second team honors while Pulver landed the NSIC Elite 18 Award for the second year in a row. Pulver (pictured above), a native of Chippewa Falls, Wis., who is majoring in statistics and actuarial science, owns the highest cumulative grade point aveage (4.00) of all the NSIC Cross Country Championship participants. 

2017 NSIC Championship Results