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Hess covered the four-kilometer course in 14:12.78. No team scores were kept for the four-team meet, which included Drake, Iowa State, Minnesota, and Northern Iowa. Hess led six Minnesota runners in the top ten.

In September, Hess was third at the four-team Oz Memorial Run, a home meet, helping the Gophers to a 1-2-3-4-5 finish and a perfect team score of 15.

In larger meets this fall, Hess was 99th overall at the Roy Griak Invitational, hosted by the U of M, where the Gophers finished 19th out of 26 teams. (The Gophers are running this fall without their top runner, who is injured.)

Most recently, the Gophers finished 20th out of 32 teams in the Purple Race at the Pre-NCAA Meet in Cedar Falls, Iowa, on Saturday, Oct. 18. Defending national champion and top ranked BYU won the Purple Race, while Stanford, rated second, won the Gold Race.

Hess was third for the Gophers and 107th overall in this six-kilometer race, finishing in 22:09.06. The Gophers will run in the Big Ten Championships in East Lansing, Mich., on Sunday, Nov. 2.

Jen Hess (359), a sophmore at the University of Minnesota, leads a pack at the Roy Griak Invitational in September. Hess won her first collegiate cross country race in October at Iowa State.

The NCAA Midwest Regional will be held on Saturday, Nov. 15, in Stillwater, Okla., and the NCAA Championships will be on Monday, Nov. 24, at Cedar Falls, Iowa.

Hess, a 2002 PAHS graduate, is the daughter of Barb and Dave Hess of Paynesville. A nursing major, she is also a sophomore in indoor and outdoor track. She placed 12th last spring in the 10,000-meter run at the Big Ten Track and Field Meet.