SAINT LEO, Fla. - Already a five-time medalist in the 2021 Winona State University women's cross country season,
Lindsay Cunningham is set to compete at the 2021 NCAA Division II women's cross country championships on Saturday, Nov. 20 in Saint Leo, Florida, where she will take on the top distance athletes in the country.
For Cunningham, the trip south represents the cumulation of hard work, perseverance and a supportive team structure that has allowed her to be her best. And by best, it means literally that: the best. Cunningham has won every college race she has ran this fall.
The Winona State women's cross country team schedule featured three regular season meets and in each and every one, the women's field found themselves chasing Cunningham. In early September at the Wisconsin - Parkside Vic Godfrey open, Cunningham cruised to a time of 13:59.4, first running past and then running faster than several entries from NCAA Division I and II programs including the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, Lewis (Ill.) University and the hosts, University of Wisconsin - Parkside. The sophomore from the Wisconsin Dells ran an average mile time of 5:37.1 in the four kilometer event.
Cunningham followed up her impressive season-opening showing with a medalist effort at the Roy Griak Invitational on Sept. 24, hosted by the University of Minnesota. Unlike the relatively small five-team field at UW-Parkside, the Roy Griak field was comprised of over 25 teams and 325 individual participants, one of the largest meets in the country. Undaunted by the size of the competition, Cunningham simply outran everyone on the 6K course, turning in a halfway time of 10:59.3 after 3,000 meters and then finding another gear to finish first at 21:44.9. Minnesota-Duluth's Mackenzie Hall was second to Cunningham, nearly 40 seconds behind the WSU standout. With the win, Cunningham became the first Warrior student-athlete to win the event and allowed Winona State to become just the fourth NSIC school to have the top runner at the Roy Griak, joining Augustana, Minnesota-Duluth and Augustana as teams with an individual champion.
On Oct. 7, in the final tune up before NSIC and NCAA competition, Cunningham again set the pace, this time at the Waxlax Invitational hosted by St.Cloud State University. A 6K race held on a course similar to the Griak, Cunningham bested a field which consisted of all Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference competitors, offering a preview of what the rest of the NSIC would likely see two weeks later. That being, Cunningham out in front and everyone else running for second place. In a season of impressive performances, Cunningham's NSIC Championships run on Oct. 23 was a repeat performance, outlasting the league's best in Wayne, Neb., turning in a 21:21.42 time.
After four successive wins, all that was left for Cunningham was to punch her ticket to the 2021 NCAA National Championships with a strong outing showing at the Division II Central Region Championship, but would have to run her best race to do so. Cunningham did just that, battling back from a second place spot at the halfway mark and eventually outpacing Augustana's Megan Means to claim the 2021 NCAA Division II Central Region crown.
As one of the top two individual finishers at the 2021 NCAA Division II Central Region championship, Cunningham earned an individual at-large opportunity in the NCAA National championships. Her medalist time of 20:22.52 also helped Winona State earn a fourth-place finish overall as a team.
Regardless of how the final meet of the season goes for Cunningham, she already has turned heads in the NCAA Division II cross country community. Earlier this month, Cunningham was named the 2021 U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Association (USTFCCA) women's Central Region Athlete of the Year. The prestigious award was announced on Nov. 9 marks the first time a Winona State student-athlete has been named the USTFCCA Central Region Athlete of the Year; the honor earned by Cunningham broke a five-year winning streak by UMary over that time period.
The NCAA Division II women's cross country championships field will consist of over 250 runners from around the country. Fans will see 34 qualifying teams with seven participants apiece and 24 individual at-large qualifiers -
Lindsay Cunningham among them - at the starting line on Saturday.
The live stream for the championships can be found
at this link. Cunningham and the rest of the NCAA Division II women's field will start at 8:30am EST, 7:30am CST.
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About Winona State University Athletics:
The Winona State University Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, as an integral part of the educational mission of the institution, is committed to offering opportunities to experience academic and athletic excellence for our student-athletes through two simple words:
Graduate Champions.
Fourteen Warrior programs compete at the NCAA Division II level within the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC). Winona State University competes as an affiliate member of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) in the sport of women's gymnastics.
