Regan Niemi (Bemidji, MN/Bemidji HS) has made a collegiate running career by shining at the MIAC Championships.  The Rookie of the Year for 2023 finished that inaugural meet in 17^th place and a personal best, time, then earning All-Conference accolades in 2024, finishing 8^th with another personal best.

Niemi showed more of the same mettle against an arguably deeper 2025 MIAC Championship field, equaling her 8^th place All-Conference performance from a year ago, but doing it 35 seconds quicker, shaving 30 seconds off of her updated personal best set a month ago at the Blugold Inivitational.

Niemi and the Saints came out swinging, Niemi setting pace in the second chase pack of 5 runners, behind a lead pack of 5.  The Saints tallied 128 points at the 2km mark, in a tenuous 3^rd place behind Carleton and St. Olaf,  just 2 points ahead of Macalester in 4th, with Concordia 17 points back in 5th, and Gustavus 28 points back, in 6^th, and lurking.

"I was kind of surprised, honestly," said Head Coach Chad Salmela of the first score.  "I didn't really tell our team to get out quickly, and I honestly don't think we did go out too quickly. I knew that 128 was probably too high a score to stay up in the top three by the end of the meet.  I just knew what we were up against, and got situated to urge them on."

At the front of the field, the group of leaders strung out a little past the halfway mark as Carleton teammates Hannah Preisser and Claire Vukovics broke away from the other three, with the freshman Vukovics taking the MIAC victory in 21:21.4, just steps away from her high school down the street.  Preisser finished second in 21:23.7, with Gustavus Adolphus's Molly Liston taking 3^rd in 21:46.8.

Carleton won with 30 points over St. Olaf with 80.

The Saints would hold relatively steady scoring through the remainder of the race, giving up 11 points from the 2k to the finish, dropping a place at each time check—4^th at 3k, 5^th at 5k, and winding up 6^th at the 6km finish line. 

Gustavus jumped to third by 5km where they'd end the day with 116 points.  Macalester shaved 10 points over the course of the race to finish fourth with 120, and Concordia flipped 18 points on the Saints in the final kilometer to move into 5^th at the finish.

Niemi hung strong to finish 8^th in an incredible 30-second personal best 6k time of 22:18.8, earning her All-MIAC accolades for the second straight year.  The time is the 7^th fastest 6km in program history.

Abby Wood (Circle Pines, MN/Centennial HS) ran an equally-impressive 35-second PR to finish in 23:12.9 in 24^th, and All-MIAC Honorable Mention, and posting the 14^th-best 6km in the program's record book.  Maj-Lis Helmer (Duluth, MN/Duluth East HS) ran a season-best 23:22.2 to score third in 35^th place, while Kaia Osmundson (Chisago Lakes, MN/Chisago Lakes HS) ran a 29.3-second PR in 23:46.1 in 42^nd place.  Katelyn Torrel (Gilbert, MN/Virginia/Rock Ridge HS) dropped a full 1:03 off of her previous fastest 6k to cross the line as the Saints' final scorer in 23:51.0.

Today's performance is the just the second in Saints history to have all 5 scorers under the 24-minute mark, and Torrel's 23:51.0 is the fastest time for a Saints 5^th scorer in program history.

The 16 Saints women competing posted 11 personal best 6km times, 9 of which were 30 seconds or greater, with 5 seasonal bests.  It was one of the biggest performance jumps head coach Chad Salmela has ever experienced at a single meet.

"It wasn't unexpected, all the PBs.  We usually do this at the end of a season," said Salmela.  "I think the degree in which we jumped forward—the actual time jumps made as a group-- is hidden in the narrative of the season overall."

Salmela felt like the metrics to determine how they were doing with building race fitness got missed in the race results of the regular season, with heat affecting performance metrics negatively.  "I think I kind of knew we could run some dramatically quicker times today in the cold air, but this was maybe a bit more than I expected.  But it sure was a fun way to close it out!"

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.

Results