Talk about starting off the season in a positive fashion.

The Dickinson State women's basketball team picked up a signature victory on Saturday when it knocked off defending NAIA national champion Morningside College of Sioux City, Iowa. The Blue Hawks won 93-83 at home.

Morningside entered the season ranked No. 1 in the NAIA preseason poll. Dickinson State was ranked No. 10.

The Blue Hawks advanced to the Elite Eight at last year's national tournament and finished the season with a 26-7 record.

"I think it was big for us just to get that first one out of the way," said Dickinson State coach Andre Goldberg, who is in his first year at the helm. "Our ladies did a good job of stepping up to the challenge.

"It is definitely a big win for us. If we don't come back this weekend and back it up, it doesn't mean anything."

The Blue Hawks (1-0 overall) host Montana State-Northern on Friday and Great Falls on Saturday.

The Blue Hawks trailed 53-42 at halftime against Morningside. They outscored the Mustangs 51-29 in the second half to get the victory.

"We just had to buckle down a little bit and not give up easy baskets," Goldberg said. "We had given up easy layups and 3-pointers."

Five Dickinson State players score in double digits. Kia Herbel tallied 24, Amber Adams 18, Jessica Nieves 14, Jennifer Marquez 13 and Teryl Norton 11. Herbel collected 10 rebounds.

Nieves, a junior from Montclair, Calif., filled in at point guard for Kelsey Boedeker, who is sidelined with a heart condition.

"Jessica Nieves did a nice job stepping up in the point guard position," Goldberg said. "She hasn't played it a whole lot in her career. She did a nice job filling in that void."

Marauders set to run at regionals

The U-Mary women's cross country team has put together a banner season, earning a No. 7 ranking in the Central Region.

The Marauders hope to raise some eyebrows this weekend and creep into the top six. U-Mary travels to the Central Region championships at Wayne, Neb., on Saturday.

The top six women's teams advance to the national championships, and the top five men's teams earn a national berth. The number of national berths each region is awarded is based on the success at the previous season's national meet.

The top two individuals, not running on a qualifying team, move on to nationals. The national meet will be held in Evansville, Ind., Nov. 21.

"We would like to think the women have an outside chance," U-Mary coach Mike Thorson said. "We're going to have to run better on Saturday if we're going to have a shot at a berth in the national meet."

Thorson said that associate head coach Dennis Newell has traditionally trained his runners to peak at the right time.

"He has the uncanny ability to have people ready for a big meet," Thorson said. "He does a good job of having them prepared from a mental aspect and a physical aspect. This year it's a little tougher because we have such a young team."

Short shots

n Preston Wahl of Bismarck was a member of the University of North Dakota's winning 400 medley team at the UND Open this past weekend. The Sioux won the event in a time of 3:36.72.

n Carissa Gormally of Williston won a pair of individual events and helped two relays win at the UND Open.

Gormally took the 50 free with a season-best time of 23.74 - just one second shy of her record time set last year. She also set a new personal best in the 100 back in 59.64.

Gormally helped the 200 relay (1:38.04) and the 400 medley relay (4:05.45) record victories.

n Jamestown won its 13th straight match and their 12th straight Dakota Athletic Conference victory with a sweep over Dickinson State on Saturday.

It was also the Jimmies' 11th sweep in 12 conference matches.

Jamestown clinched the DAC championship outright, the first time the Jimmies have collected back-to-back conference titles since 1985-86.