The Grand View women's cross country team looks to make a jump in the conference rankings this fall after placing fourth at last year's conference championship meet. The Viking women will once again be led by junior All-American Obsie Birru who is coming off an eighth place finish at the NAIA Cross Country National Championships last season. She also won a Drake Relays title at 10,000m and was crowned the NAIA National Champion in the 10,000m run on the track this past spring.
Head Coach Jerry Monner will look for junior Betsy Craig to join Birru as a leader for this year's team. Craig is coming off a very solid sophomore cross country season and was an indoor national qualifier on the track running the lead leg of the Viking's distance medley relay at the NAIA Indoor National Championships and the Drake Relays. Senior Felicia Hoover will also provide experience and leadership to the team this season.
The Vikings will gain depth and experience from four transfer students joining the team. Junior Kara Keller is a transfer from Iowa Central Community College where she was a NJCAA All-American in cross country and was part of Iowa Central's NJCAA National Championship team in 2008 and NJCAA National runner-up team last season. Keller has a personal best 5k time of 19:04 and should make an immediate impact to the Viking's line-up. Junior Sadie Fisher and sophomore Allison McFayden are former teammates transferring from Dana College. Fisher has a personal best 5k performance of 20:30 and McFayden ran a 5k personal best of 21:16 as a freshman last season. DMACC transfer Laura Reichart will be a contributor and give the team depth in the middle of the pack.
Freshman Katie Burt will be making the jump into the college ranks this season transitioning from the 4k race into the 5k distance. Burt is a two-time Iowa Class 2A state qualifier in cross country as she helped North Polk High School to a ninth place team finish in 2008 and a tenth place team finish last season. Junior Maggie Pestotnik will be running her first season of cross country since high school. She has been competing for the Viking track & field team the past two seasons.
Birru finished eighth individually at the NAIA National Championships, posting a time of 18:20 over a 5K course and earning All-American honors for the second straight year
Grand View junior Felicia Hoover earned the Daktronics-NAIA Scholar Athlete distinction. Hoover is a junior Nursing major from LeClaire, Iowa.
Nominated by each institution's head coach, a student-athlete must maintain a minimum grade point average of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale and have achieved junior academic status to qualify.
Two runners will represent Grand Viewat the championships. Sophomore Obsie Birru (Des Moines, Iowa) will compete in the women's race and senior Bichok Deng (Des Moines, Iowa) in the men's race Both qualified for the NAIA National Championships via the MCC Championships in which Birru won and Deng placed third. It is Birru's second trip to nationals; she placed 18th in 2008.
Thirty-two women's teams, including 23 conference/independent/unaffiliated champions, two conference runners-up, six at-large bids, one host berth and 117 individual qualifiers, will run in the 5K race.
The men's 8K race will also welcome 32 teams, including 22 conference/independent/unaffiliated champions, eight at-large bids, one conference runner-up, one host berth and 102 individual qualifiers.
| Grand View at | 9:30am |
| Mount Mercy Mustang Gallop - Cedar Rapids, Iowa | |
