Devin Schelske, sports editor

For the second year in a row, mens cross country runner Mohammed Bati has been named the MIAC Cross Country Athlete of the Year. The sophomore had another astonishing season, winning three races and placing top three in two others out of the six races he competed in. The most important of his wins being the MIAC championships individual title where he ran the second-fastest 8K time in MIAC championship history at 24:23.8. His outstanding accomplishments were more than enough to get him selected as a 2023 All-MIAC cross country runner. 

In his short career at Augsburg, he has already accomplished two All-MIAC selections, two MIAC Cross Country Athlete of the Year honors, two MIAC championship individual titles, 2022 MIAC Rookie of the Year honors, four MIAC Cross Country Athlete of the Week honors, eight individual first place finishes, a top ten finish at the NCAA regional championships and a qualification for the NCAA division three national championship race. If Bati were to retire right now, he would still go down as the greatest Augsburg mens cross country runner of all-time. There is already a spot waiting for him in Augsburg’s athletic hall of fame.

I was able to interview Bati as a fellow Auggie athlete in order to get a look behind the scenes of his historic career. After watching such a great athlete perform at this high of a level, one has to wonder, why did Bati choose Augsburg? The answer was simple, “I chose Augsburg because it’s close to my family and the community I know. St. Paul was the first place I came to after moving from Ethiopia so the area is more comfortable to me.”

As an interviewer, I was also interested to know more about Bati’s running experience before college. The Augsburg mens cross country roster showed that his only team experience was as a member of the Highland Park High School track and field team. However, Bati was able to share some details about his running journey. “I never ran cross country before college but I just had this dream to go to college to run someday. At the time I just had to tell myself to hold on and train everyday. Sometimes you have to be your own coach in training and races. My training was running around the community and signing up for local races no matter the distance. Even though I had to run by myself I felt happy and I knew I’d get there someday.” He even shed some light on his inspiration to perform as well as he has saying “You have to have a dream to go somewhere. I have this dream to do something as a man, as one person. It’s not about just running for Augsburg, it’s about how far you want to go with your goals.” 

Bati is a dual sport athlete and does distance running for the mens track and field team. Keep an eye out for the 2024 track and field team schedule on the Augsburg athletics website to see when Bati’s first event is!