Coming into the 2025 MIAC Championships, Jeffery Kayfes made a college career of stepping up his game and scoring big for the Saints when they've needed him to.

In his final MIAC 8k cross country race, Kayfes delivered with the race of his career, finishing 26^th place in 26:44.7; an agonizing three-tenths of a second from an All Conference Honorable Mention accolade.

Augsburg senior, Mohammed Bati, became the first four-time MIAC Conference Champion in history, easily disposing of St. Olaf's Kevin Turlington in the final kilometer, to win in a time of 24:32.7.  Turlington finished nine seconds back after matching Bati stride for stride to the 7km mark, and simply had no answer to Bati's surge to the finish.  Carleton's Gabe Nichols shook free of the chase pack in the closing kilometer to finish third, in 25:16.1.

St. Olaf won their fourth straight MIAC Men's Championship title with 33 points.  Carleton took second with 84, while Macalester took third with 96.

Kayfes has a history of out-sized performances at the MIAC Championships.  Four years earlier, as a freshman, on nearly the identical course, the then-freshman emerged from a relatively lackluster inaugural season, leading a Saints three-man charge to move from 8^th to 6^th in the final 400 meters of the 2022 race—a program-best finish to that date for the Saints men.  In 2023, Kayfes improved over a minute over 8k at the MIAC Championship to secure at shocking third-place team finish for the Saints. That remains the program's high water mark by three places.

With his 2024 season-best run for the Saints at last year's MIAC Championships scoring for the Saints, Kayfes closes his outsized contribution at the event shaving thirty seconds off his all-time best 8k, while bettering his previous-best MIAC finish by 44 places.

Kayfes rubbed off on his teammates behind him, as all five Saints scorers would also post the fastest 8k times of their careers. 

Ashton Niemi (Bemidji, Minn./Bemidji HS) led the Saints men twice this year, crossed the line as the second scorere, in 27:35.6, 10.9 seconds faster than he's run ever the distance, finishing in 50^th place, 52 places higher than his previous MIAC best.

Connor Feldt (Aurora, MN/Mesabi East HS) and Nik Stoufis, each in their first MIAC Championship, finished six-tenths of a second apart in 66^th, 67^th places. Feldt dropped his 8k best by 32.8 seconds, while Stoufis knocked 10.9 seconds off his previous-best performance.  Evan Bumbgardner closed out the scoring in 74^th place, bettering his 8k time by 22.8 seconds.

The Saints tallied 207 points to finish 7^th of 11 teams.

"I am so happy with how the team stepped up today," said head coach, Chad Salmela.  "If you look at the task these guys had today, the mix of experience of our scoring team, well, I think this was a really great day for this team." 
The Saints tied their conference performance from last year with some untested freshmen stepping into big roles, and Salmela sees this as a big step to the future. 
"These freshman are deeper than they might realize themselves, and we got everything we could ask from our upper classmen," says Salmela, highlighting that you can't ask for a lot more as a coach from your team, when all five scorers run the distance faster than ever before. 

In terms of the results sheet, the Saints men have finished higher at this meet.  But only twice.

"Of those teams, this is probably as good an actual performance by our men's team at a MIAC Championship, as any I've coached," asserts Salmela.

"What I saw out there today was a mix of experienced upperclassmen giving their experience the best ending they possibly could, with some freshmen just beginning to uncover what they might be capable of.  That's a wonderful place to end a season as a coach.  It excites me for the future."

The Saints top seven runners will prepare for the NCAA North Regionals, November 15^th, at Whitetail Golf Course In Colfax, Wisconsin.  The top team and seven individuals not qualified on a team, will advance from there to the NCAA Championship meet, November 22nd in Spartranburg, South Carolina.

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