Falcon Heights, Minn (KWAD) – The University of Minnesota cross country teams hosted its annual Roy Griak Invitational at the Les Bolstad Golf Course on Friday morning. The collegiate meet, which also runs six high school races showcasing some of the Midwest’s top high school talent, runs four collegiate races.
The Griak Gold 8K race featured standout performances from two Staples-Motley High School alum finishing within four seconds of each other: Minnesota redshirt junior Emmet Anderson (SMHS Class of ’21) and NDSU senior Hunter Klimek (SMHS Class of ’19) finished the race 11th and 12th, respectively.
Anderson clocked a time of 25:19.7, narrowly edging out Klimek to take 11th place, and leading the Gophers to a third-place team finish—their best since 2018. Klimek’s 12th-place overall finish in the eight-kilometer race, with a time of 25:22.9, was the highest finish by a Bison runner in the school’s Division I era. The Bison finished 10th overall in the 17-team field.
Both runners have had distinguished college careers since graduating from SMHS. Klimek competed at state three times for the Cardinals, finishing fifth overall individually at the State Meet his senior season. After graduating, he ran at Iowa Central Community College, qualifying for six NJCAA National Championship meets. After transferring to NDSU in 2022, he earned All-Summit League second team honors in 2022 and 2023.
Anderson, meanwhile, recorded three Top 10 finishes at the State Cross Country meet from 2017-2019 including a runner-up finish in 2019. After the State Meet was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic, he won the Boys Small Class race at the 2020 TCRC Cross Country Showcase. Anderson still holds the Staples-Motley boys 5k school record at 15:09.
Last year as a redshirt sophomore, Anderson was the Gopher’s top runner in three of the six meets, including a 56th place finish at the Big Ten Championships.
Klimek and the Bison’s next race is the SDSU Classic in Brookings on October 4th. Anderson and the Gophers head to Chicago for the Loyola Lakefront Invite that same day.