Ramsey Fitzsimmons won the women's race at the GWC Championship Meet.

OREM, UTAH: The University of South Dakota’s women’s cross country team finished second while the men finished fourth at the inaugural Great West Conference Championship in Orem, Utah on Saturday morning. USD’s Ramsey Fitzsimmons won the women’s race while Rob Gregorie led the men with a seventh place finish.

The Coyote cross country team was one of seven teams competing in the meet which included Division I opponents; Houston Baptist University, Chicago State University, the University of Texas Pan-America, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Utah Valley University and the University of North Dakota.

The University of South Dakota women finished second with a team score of 46 just short of Utah Valley University who claimed the title with a score of 42. On the men’s side, USD finished fourth with a team score of 91. University of Texas Pan-America won the men’s title with a score of 35.

Ramsey Fitzsimmons (Jr., Yankton, S.D) led USD with a first place finish as she posted a time of 22:47.4 in the 6K run. Two other USD runners finished in the top 10 as Kelsey Maloney (Sr., Sioux Falls, S.D) claimed second place with a 23:02.4 time, while Jessica Lundgren (Sr., Truman, Minn.) took ninth pace with a time of 24:06.1.

Rob Gregorie (Jr., Wakonda, S.D.) led the men with a seventh place finish posting a time of 26:31.5 in the 8K run. Andrew Duba (Sioux Falls, S.D) and Sean Fitzsimmons (Jr., Yankton, S.D.) were next with 15th and 16th place finishes with times of 27:45.3 and 27:54.8.

This meet marked the end of the 2008 cross country season for the Coyotes.