Field Soosloff represents MSU-N cross country at nationals

The Montana State University-Northern men’s cross country team was represented at the NAIA National Championships this past Friday as Field Soosloff ran for the Lights.

It was the second straight season that Soosloff ran in the national finals after he placed 229th last season. In this year’s national finals in Vancouver, Washington, Soosloff placed 211th with a time of 27:40.9.

“I definitely performed a little better than last year but still not quite up to my expectations,” Soosloff said.

Soosloff was one of 330 runners competing at the national meets. While he was happy to get the chance to compete on the big stage, he felt like not having his teammates there to run with hurt his time.

“Usually when you have your team there, you have people to race for,” Soosloff said “When the going gets tough during the race, you really kind of don’t have that motivation to rely on.”

It was a rainy day at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site where the race was held. With the rain turning the course muddy, it made the race even tougher to get through.

“It’s pretty challenging, especially in that third or fourth mile when you get to a muddy spot. It really kind of saps your speed and you have to push through it to get back up to where you were,” Soosloff said.

However, Soosloff loved the location of the meet and thought it served as the perfect backdrop for a run.

“It was more of a running atmosphere,” Soosloff said. “I really liked Washington and I like the scenery. The big mountains in the background and the green everywhere were pretty cool.”

Tennessee school Milligan won the men’s meet with a score of 115. Oklahoma City freshman Zouhair Talbi won the meet with a time of 24:43.1. Frontier Conference schools Carroll College, Southern Oregon and Eastern Oregon competed as teams at the meet. SOU finished 14th, EOU took 20th and Carroll finished 26th.

Rocky Mountain College also had a pair of runners qualify for at-large bids. Jackson Wilson finished 62nd with a time of 26:19.6 and Jackson Duffey placed 232nd with a time of 27:53.9. Montana Western’s Luke Lutz also competed as an at-large runner as he took 141st with a time of 27:05.3.

Coming off of back-to-back appearances in the NAIA National Championship, Soosloff will return for another season to run for the Lights. As he gets ready for next season, he said he will be sure to learn from his experience in Vancouver.

“I have a lot of things to work on. I got to learn how to mentally push through stuff when the going gets tough, even with or without a team there,” Soosloff said. “I got a lot more training to do.”