Dickinson State's 2010 edition of the "Beach Run" Invitational held this afternoon at Patterson Lake was a success for the men's and women's Blue Hawk harriers. DSU's Edwin Chelashaw (SO-Eldoret, Kenya) notched his second race win of the season in the team competition, charging to a swift 26:23.69 over the challenging 8k course. Chelashaw finished 13 seconds ahead of collegiate runner-up, Daniel Lombardi of MSU-Billings, on the course which included the famed beach section and undulating moguls on the courses back portion. Chelashaw's first medalist outing of 2010 was at the Valley City State University Viking Invitational.

Chelashaw was able to latch onto former DSU harrier Ishmael Arzola today for the first two miles and get out to a fast start. Arzola, running unattached, established a new course record of 25:53 in winning the overall competition. The previous record of 25:56 was held by another former Blue Hawk, Sal Bautista of North Face Race Team.

Other DSU men's finishers were Chris Gill (JR-Newhall, CA) who finished 15th, Dustin Sandbak (FR-Billings, MT), in 19th, and Micah Morrill (FR-Snohomish, WA) in 24th.

The DSU women put together arguably their toughest performance of the season today. Dickinson State placed 3 runners in the top six, 4 in the top eight, and 5 in the top eleven to finish second as a team. Vanessa Esquivel (JR-Ontario, CA) led the way for the Hawks, bolting to fourth place in a time of 20:12.83. Tina Marie Soto (SR-Upland, CA) and Gladys Rotich (SO-Nairobi, Kenya) were just behind, running 20:31.03 and 20:41:07, to place 5th and 6th, respectively. Megan Auch (FR-Corvallis, MT) was DSU's fourth runner, finishing in 8th place with a time of 21:01.66. Sam Pounds (SR-Bakersfield, CA) ran 22:38.06 to finish 11th and close out the team scoring. Dickinson State's 1-3 time gap of :29 seconds and 1-4 spread of :49 seconds were great indicators of gained fitness and improved team packing up front.

Other Blue Hawk women's finishers were Jamie Swetella (SR-Bakersfield, CA) who finished 12th, Erika Nowack (SO-San Jose, CA) in 13th, and Lillian Alvernaz (FR-Glasgow, MT) who finished 14th in her collegiate debut.

Dickinson State returns to action Friday, October 1st for the Jamestown College Jimmie Invitational. The first race is at 4pm.

Two weeks later, the Blue Hawks trek to Billings, MT for the MSU-Billings Invitational. The meet starts at 10:00 am on Saturday, October 16th.