UMD men’s and women’s cross country return to campus

The University of Minnesota Duluth men’s and women’s cross country teams were back on campus on Monday. With both teams projected to finish fourth overall in the Northern Sun Collegiate Conference coaches poll.

“Last year with our women placing 20th in the nation that was huge. They really came together when it mattered most. I have just been really proud of how dedicated they are to each other and same with the men. I think they’re going to surprise a lot of people. They’ve just got a lot of experience under their belt and they’re ready to kind of capitalize on all the competition,” said men’s and women’s head coach Brette Jensen.

“We want to compete at the top of the conference. There’s some great teams in the NSIC, there’s no doubt about that. We think that our coaches are going to be able to get us to compete at that high level with the top dogs,” added senior Jack Van Kempen.

Van Kempen was named an a NSIC athlete to watch along with fellow Bulldog Lauryn Renier for this up coming season.

“Everybody’s worked super hard this summer, and I’ve gotten to see a lot of that. A lot of people doing hard workouts together, just having a lot of fun with training lately. So I’m really excited for us to kind of reap the benefits of that this season when we open up competition next week, which will be really fun,” stated Renier.

Van Kempen was 45th overall in the 2022 NCAA regional championship, while Renier was 32nd overall in her last three regular season competitions.

UMD cross country will open up their season on September 1st for the Oz Memorial in Falcon Heights, Minnesota.