This past weekend the Wildcats competed at home in the Wildcat Classic. The next meet will be Saturday, Oct.5 at the Briar Cliff invitational held in McCook Lake, South Dakota at 10:00 a.m. for the women and 10:45 a.m. for the men.

WSC women’s cross country had four runners place in the top 10 and the team finished second overall at the Wayne Country Club.

“The season has gone ‘OK’ so far,” head coach Marlon Brink said. “We had some injuries and illnesses early on that plagued the team, but we have mostly gotten everyone relatively healthy and were running at our home meet this weekend.”

Sophomore Allie Rosener came out as the top finisher for the Wildcats. Rosener placed fourth out of 52 runners with a time of 20:12 on the 5,000-meter course.

Three other runners that finished inside the top 10 were freshman Jade Rickard who finished eighth with a time of 20:33. Coming in behind her was sophomore Andrea Torres who finished with a time of 20:45. Kim Johnson finished in 10th place at 20:47.

The women’s team showed everyone in their conference that they have multiple runners who can compete at the top.

“Marin Jetensky has made some big improvements from last year,” Brink said.

Jetensky finished 13th with a time of 21:06. Brianna Crouch 16th at 21:11. Alex Bauer finished 17th with a time of 21:16, Amanda Mote finished 18th with a time of 21:16, Molly McCartney finished 32th at 22:26 and Josephine Peitz at 44th with a time of 25:19.

“At the start of the season we talked about team goals, also trying to be top 10 in the NSIC on both the men’s and women’s sides,” Brink said.

Following the women’s race, the men competed in an 8,000-meter course at the country club as well.

MSU Moorhead ran away with the team title over South Dakota School of Mines with a score of 62-15. WSC came in third with 95 points. Behind them were Bellevue University at 98 points and then Mount Marty and Southwest Minnesota State rounding out the rest of the team standings.

Having the best day for the men’s cross-country team was senior Dylan Kessler as he crossed the finish line ninth overall out of 51 runners with a time of 27:30 on the 8,000-meter course.

Finishing inside the top 20 was Bryce Holcomb, who crossed the tape in 19th place at 28:10 and coming in behind him was Bailey Peckham at 28:14. Other Wildcat finishers were Brock Hegarty finishing 28th at 28:56, Nathan Pearson finishing 20th at 29:05, Jakob Kemper finished 35th at 29:37 and then Nathan Hiemer who finished 41st at 30:44.

“If we can keep everyone healthy and improving over the next four weeks, that goal we set should be a realistic goal for the team and a decent improvement from last year,” Brink said.

The next meet for WSC men and women is this Saturday in McCook Lake, South Dakota for the Briar Cliff Invitational with the women starting at 10 a.m. and the men following. WSC also will host the NSIC Championships here in Wayne on Saturday, Oct. 26.