EUGENE, Ore. — On the heels of a top-15 finish in his season debut, Rapid City Stevens graduate Simeon Birnbaum was recently named Big Ten men's freshman of the week. This is the University of Oregon’s first weekly award as a member of the Big Ten Conference.

Birnbaum ran to a 14th-place finish at the Cowboy Jamboree (Sept. 28) in Stillwater, Okla. Donning the Oregon kit for the first time in a cross-country race, he navigated the 8,000-meter course in a time of 24:10.9 to pace Oregon to a third-place team finish.

Oregon hosts the Bill Dellinger Invitational on Friday, Oct. 11, at the Pine Ridge Golf Club in Springfield, Ore. 

The 2024 Big Ten Cross-Country Championships will be contested Friday, Nov. 1, in Savoy, Illinois. 

Birnbaum, who is a redshirt freshman, was a four-time Gatorade South Dakota Player of the Year, winning two times each in cross-country and track and field. He was a 13-time SDHSAA state champion—11 in track and two in cross-country