Wayne State College cross country kicked off the weekend with the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference cross country meet on their home turf. Though WSC has one of the hardest courses that the ‘Cats run all season, the men’s team finished 11th and the women’s finished 12th.

“It was a hard race for the team,” freshman runner Lucas Frazier said. “We have a lot of room to grow and get stronger. While we did not get the place we were expecting, our runners have made strides in the right direction.”

On the men’s side, Augustana took the champion title home, Minnesota State Moorehead took second, Minnesota State ran in third place, UMary took fourth, and Minnesota Crookston rounded out the top five teams.

As for the women’s side, Winona State made it out in first place just ahead of Minnesota Crookston. Minnesota Duluth took third with Augustana and UMary rounded out the top five women’s teams.

Senior Brody Lucas and sophomore Allie Czapla took the spots of the Wildcats’ top runners, finishing in 42nd and 58th respectively.

“Allie Czapla moved up 28 places from where she finished last year,” Head coach, Marlon Brink said. “Brody Lucas was four places better than last year.”

The team also had some standout true freshmen, according to Coach Brink. Kyla Krusemark and Lucas Frazier both finished as second runners for the Wildcats just seconds behind Czapla and Lucas.

“Being a freshman myself, I would say our freshmen have done a great job for it being all of our first years,” Frazier said. “This excited me to see what we could be capable of in the next few years.”

The cross country team will travel to Joplin, Missouri for regionals on Nov. 8 and will take the same race plan from the conference meet.

“This meet was definitely hard,” Krusemark said. “I think I am a little less nervous for regionals, but I know I still have to push and with there being less hills there it’s a little less nerve wracking.”