ST. JOSEPH, MINN. – After a season of strong performances, the College of St. Benedict Cross Country Team will wrap up the regular season by competing at the Jim Drews/Tori Neubauer Invite on Saturday, Oct. 15 in West Salem, Wisc.

To follow along, click here for live stats. The women's race will begin at 11:20 am.

MIAC Championships next on the schedule on Oct. 29
After this regular season competition, the Bennies will prepare for the MIAC Championship which will be held in two weeks on Saturday, Oct. 29 at St. Paul, Minn. A year ago, CSB was fifth of 11 teams as Fiona Smith, who later earned All-American (5^th place), won the individual title, to become the third in school history to accomplish that honor. She covered the 6K course in 21:28.6 or 11 seconds ahead of the next finished.  Emily DeMorett earned All-MIAC honorable mention after a 25^th place finish and both Elisa Yeager and Kalli Smith finished top 50.

Season Review - Meet Results
This season, CSB won its own meet with 22 points on Sept. 3 in a competition with Concordia and St. Cloud State. At the Hamline Invite in St. Paul, Minn., on Sept. 9, CSB was second with 53 points. St. Ben's finished 11^th of 30 teams at the Roy Griak Invite on Sept. 23 in Minneapolis and was 12^th of 36 teams with 379 points at the Pre-Nationals Meet in Lansing, Mich.  As CSB eyes the next competition tomorrow, they can reflect on a season that has had a number of special moments and strong performances. Here is a breakdown of the competitions and finishes.

CSB wins home meet to open year –
For the second consecutive season the Saint Benedict cross country team claimed a victory in their season opener at Boulder Ridge Golf Club on a beautiful Saturday morning in St. Cloud. The Bennies finished in first place with 22 team points, ahead of St. Cloud State University with 35 points and Concordia Moorhead with 77 points. Individually, Fiona Smith claimed top honors, smashing the school record at the 5K distance with a time of 17:21.3. Smith's time broke her own school record set in 2021 of 17:48.11 and was more than a minute-and-a-half faster than the rest of the field. Smith is currently the school record holder in both the 5K and 6K distances. CSB placed four runners in the top-six and seven in the top-16 in route to its team victory. Anne Kiolbasa finished third for St. Ben's with a time of 19:22.2, crossing the line just ahead of teammate Bridget Tetmeyer, who finished fourth with a 19:24.2 clocking. Both times are in the top 33 in school history at the 5K distance.

Bennies claim 2^nd at Hamline Invite
Fiona Smith had an outstanding individual performance at the Hamline Invitational on Sept. 9 in St. Paul, Minn. Smith completed the course in 20:11.26, a time that would have certainly smashed her previous 6K school record (20:57.24). Unfortunately, the final course distance only measured 5,900 meters so won't be listed as an official school record, however, it will remain one of the best cross-country performances in school and conference history. She led the Bennies to an overall second-place finish (53 points), putting three runners in the top eight and all seven scoring runners in the top 37. Carleton College won the women's event with 24 team points, while the Bennies finished ahead of third place Gustavus (94 points) in the 10-team field. Bridget Tetmeyer and Annie Kiolbasa finished seventh and eighth respectively, posting times of 22:48.39 and 22:55.68.  
 
Smith takes 2^nd at Griak Invite as VSB finishes 11^th
St. Ben's, led by Smith's second place finish, was the third NCAA Division III team and 11th overall on the challenging Minnesota course. Minnesota-Duluth took home top team honors with 65 team points, while Winona State's Lindsay Cunningham was the individual champion with a time of 21:05.6. Smith, who earned the USTFCCCA National Athlete of the Week honor after the performance, clocked 21:18.6 -- a time more than 30 seconds faster that the third-place finisher, in a field of 386 competitors. Crossing the finish line next for CSB was Bridget Tetmeyer, who finished 59th overall with a 24:13.2 clocking. Emily Demorett was the number three runner for CSB, finishing 67th with a time of 24:19.6.

At Pre-Nationals, CSB claims 12^th
CSB cross country team finished 12th out of 36 teams at the NCAA D3 Pre-Nationals meet at Forest Akers Golf Course. The University of Chicago won the meet with 59 team points. Junior Fiona Smith finished second overall in the field of 243 runners and claimed an official new school record in the process. Fiona Smith ran stride for stride with defending national champion Kassie Parker of Loras College for the first mile running a 5:24.9 and 5:25 respectively. At the two-mile marker Parker had a four second advantage, which she extended to a seven second advantage at the 3.8K mark. Parker won the race with a time of 20:31.2 with Smith finishing with a 20:54.9 clocking. The time better's Smith's own school record, a 20:57.3 set at last season's NCAA North Region Championships. DeMorette crossed the line next for CSB, finishing 67th overall with a season-best time of 23:32.5. First-year Mary Kenney had a big personal-best for the Bennies. She finished the race as CSB's No .3 runner with a time of 24:05.5, cutting more than a minute and 20 seconds off her time from a week ago. Bridget Tetmeyer was the fourth finisher for Saint Ben's, crossing the finish line in season-best time of 24:07.6. Anne Kiolbasa ran No. 5 for Saint Benedict with a career-best 24:15.4 clocking -- cutting nearly 50 seconds off her time from a week ago. Sophomore Kalli Smith and first-year Tatum Leibke ran 6/7 for CSB. Kalli Smith cut nearly a minute off her time from Griak, finishing in 24:34.1, while Leibke ran a CSB career-best 6K time of 25:01.6.

2022 Team Members rank in 6K all-time at CSB
Here is a list of current CSB runners and their top time in the 6K and how they rank in school history.
Fiona Smith, 1^st, 20:54, 2022; Emily DeMorett, 9^th, 22:53, 2021; Elisa Yeager, 41^st, 23.50; Bridget Tetmeyer, 43^rd, 23:55; Mary Kenney, 49^th, 24:05; and Kalli Smith,
51^st, 24:06.

Fiona Smith has 3 MIAC and a USTFCCA National AOW honor this year
Junior standout Fiona Smith has had an amazing season as she not only as set the all-time school mark in the 6K in cross country but won three MIAC Athlete of the Week honors to give her 12 on the season. She was also the USTFCCA National Athlete of the Week on Sept. 26. She earned the honor nationally after finishing second at the Roy Griak Invite which included 386 NCAA DII, DIII and NAIA competitors. She is the first student-athlete in program history to be named M-F Athletic National Athlete of the Week during the cross-country season. Then later this fall, she set the school record (20:54.9) for 6K at the Pre-National Meet in St. Paul, Minn., to earn the third MIAC AOW honor this year and 12^th in her career.
 
CSB HC Robin Balder-Lanoue Bio
Balder-Lanoue, who also serves as Saint Benedict's head track coach, led the CSB cross country team to three straight fourth-place finishes at the conference meet from 2014-16. CSB has finished third three times at the MIAC meet (2013, 2002 and 1997). In her first year as head coach in 1997, Balder-Lanoue led CSB to the NCAA National Championships where they finished in 12^th out of 21 teams. That marked just the second NCAA appearance in school history for Saint Benedict. Balder-Lanoue has guided Saint Benedict to a top-10 region finish in 17 of her 25 seasons. Saint Benedict has never finished lower than eighth in the conference and has 14 top-five finishes and 19 top-six finishes under Balder-Lanoue's watch. Balder-Lanoue has coached 27 All-MIAC First Team selections, 23 All-MIAC Honorable Mention athletes, 36 All-Region athletes and three NCAA Division III All-Americans. As well as being successful on the course, CSB's cross country teams have had plenty of success in the classroom as well. CSB has won 25 straight USTFCCCA All-Academic Team awards dating back to 1998, and 41 individuals have been honored in that time. Balder-Lanoue is a 1991 graduate of the College of Saint Benedict and participated in both track and field and cross country for four years. She still has one of the top-50 5K times in CSB history and earned All-MIAC in track and field in 1990 and 1991. She earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics and secondary education from CSB in 1991 and graduated with a master's degree in education from Hamline in 1998. From 1991-96, Balder-Lanoue taught and was the head Nordic ski coach and assistant cross country and track and field coach at Monticello High School in nearby Monticello, Minn. She came to CSB as the head cross country coach in 1997 and served as an assistant track coach before taking over the program in 1999. Balder-Lanoue is a five-time MIAC Track and Field Coach of the Year (2009 Indoor, 2010 Outdoor, 2011 and 2016 Indoor and 2017 Outdoor).