A deep and experienced Bisons cross country team opened their conference schedule last weekend in Saskatchewan, with the season-opener taking place on September 21 in Minnesota.
 
A total of 32 student-athletes combine to make up the men's and women's rosters, with nine different individuals finishing in the top 15 at the Dakota Classic, hosted by the Huskies on September 28.

Team-wise, both Bisons squads finished second overall, with 50 points over the 8k race. Click here for the men's results and here for women's.
 
Headlining the women's side are Lena Klassen and Angela Kroeker.
 
The former finished third at the Dakota Classic, with Kroeker right behind in fifth, with times of 24:49.6 and 24:50.3, respectively. Natalie Fournier (27:30.3) and Sarah Madsen (27:59.4) also finished in the top 15.
 
Klassen, the Bison Sports Female Rookie of the Year in 2023-24, was also the fastest rookie to finish the U SPORTS Cross Country Championships last season, earning national recognition for the same award. She became the first Bison since Jennifer Ervick in 1998 to do so.
 
Meanwhile, Kroeker finished in the top 25 at the Canada West Championships a year ago, and also represented the Herd at U SPORTS.
 
The pair have picked up where they left off, in memorable fashion.
 
"The fact that there was only a one second difference between them in that race on the weekend is a sign that they're both fairly fit," said head coach Claude Berube.
 
"They feed off each other. They have to rely on each other to push each other. They both had more of a summer season, certainly for Lena, she had no summer season last year. She competed at U20 nationals in the summer and made it to the semi-finals. The fact that she kept competing until July, and same with Angela, that was a lot deeper than either of them went last year, which really helped."
 
On the men's side, the Bisons are on pace to field a team of seven for the Canada West Championships, while four of the team's five U SPORTS representatives from last year, in Carson Kroeker (Canada West All-Rookie team in 2023), Justin Kroeker, Calvin Reimer and Noah Fillion are all back.
 
Adding depth to the squad are the likes of 2024 recruits Hayes McMillan and Samuel Lamont (UNB transfer), while second-year Alejandro Civetta is coming off a strong summer, and was a huge piece for the Herd's 4x800 relay team at nationals last season on the track. Fellow sophomore Noah Leppelmann is also in the mix for a top seven spot.
 
Justin Kroeker was the best male finisher at U SPORTS last year, with a time of 25:46.7, while Lamont was the top Bisons finisher on the men's side at the Dakota Classic, with a time of 20:20.7 for fifth overall.
 
Carson Kroeker was just nine seconds behind Lamont, in seventh, while McMillan, Reimer, and Justin Kroeker rounded out the rest of the Manitoba's top 15 finishers.
 
Lamont's finish was particularly impressive, considering prior to the start of the season he hadn't raced in a year and a half.
 
"He's been the kind of person who can literally run himself into the ground," said Berube. "He's got a very high pain threshold. Once he gets back to the level of fitness and confidence that he had before, he will be a major factor for our team."
 
Meanwhile, Carson Kroeker, who "has made a really good transition" in his second year and is the team's "number two guy," along with brother Justin, McMillan – who "steps up and competes hard when the gun goes off" – and Fillion, are all sons of former Bisons runners coached by Berube in the mid 1990s.
 
"I'm on my second generation here," chuckled the head coach. "Lena Klassen, I lived with her dad. We lived in a town house in St. Norbert in the mid 1980s. There's a lot of second generation going on here, which is kind of cool."