WINTHROP, Minn. – For the Yellowjacket men's cross country team, winning the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) championship has become somewhat of a right of passage. Since joining the circuit in 2015, the Yellowjackets had won the conference title six times, including each of the last three.
 
The 2023 title was among the most impressive performances, not just in program history, but in UMAC history. Last year the Yellowjackets dominated the field, accumulating a paltry 17 points on the way to the program's sixth conference title. What would they do for an encore? The world found out Saturday.
 
While not quite as low as the totals posted a year ago, the Yellowjackets were once again the class of the UMAC cross country field, taking the conference championship with a total of 22 points. The finish meant there was little drama on the way to the title, as the Yellowjackets were 51 points clear of the runners-up from Martin Luther.
 
With the victory, the Yellowjackets claimed the UMAC Men's Cross Country Championship for the fourth consecutive year and the seventh time in program history.
 
Leading the way for the Yellowjackets was senior Aidan Doherty (Wild Rose, Wis./Wild Rose). Doherty became the fifth Yellowjacket in program history to claim the conference title, joining Charles Corbett (2015), Jackson Lindquist (2016), Evan Walpole (2017) and Michael Butterfield (Bovey, Minn./Greenway) (2023) as UMAC individual champions.
 
In a close race, Doherty claimed the title by just under five seconds, finishing the eight-kilometer course with a time of 26:09.5. Doherty bested teammate Zach Reese (Zimmerman, Minn./Spectrum), who was the runner-up with a time of 26:14.4. The event was a two-horse race, as the two Yellowjacket standouts finished the race nearly 30 seconds ahead of the rest of the field.
 
Meet Notes

• Saturday's fast course agreed with Doherty, whose time established a new 8K personal record.
• Reese's time was also a personal record.
• The Yellowjackets finished the race with four of the top five finishers.
• Dylan Uitto (Ashland, Wis./Ashland) finished in fourth place Saturday, coming in with a time of 26:55.6.
• Not far behind Uitto was Ben Plackner (Bovey, Minn./Greenway), who finished with a time of 27:02.3, which was good for fifth place.
• Both Uitto and Plackner posted personal records in the race.
• The scorers for the Yellowjackets were rounded out by Maverick Hoogland (Catawba, Wis./Phillips), who placed 10th with a time of 27:45.6.
• Finishing just outside the top ten for the Yellowjackets was Jayde Canfield (Prescott, Wis./Prescott). The freshman placed 11th with a time of 27:59.5.
• Keiran Johnson finished in 13th place with a time of 28:12.
• Dominick Meisner (Bloomer, Wis./Bloomer) also had a top-15 finish, crossing the line with a time of 28:27.2.
• Ben Adler cracked the top 20 Saturday, placing 20th with a time of 29:01.7. He just beat teammate Cale Newby (Bemidji, Minn./Bemidji), who was 21st with a time of 29:05.5.
• Deryck Parduhn (Ashland, Wis./Ashland) (29:06.8), Tyler Smith (Ironwood, Mich./Ironwood) (29:20.1), Kevin Hufziger (Macedon, N.Y./Penfield) (32:09.3) and Oleksandr Danylov (Kyiv, Ukraine/European Collegium) (33:41.0) also competed Saturday.
• In total, the Yellowjackets posted 10 personal records at Saturday's championships.

The Yellowjackets will be back in action Saturday, November 16 when they compete at the NCAA Division III North Regional in Northfield, Minn. The meet is scheduled for a noon start at Bill Huyck Championship Course.