On Sept 22, the Northwestern men’s and women’s cross-country teams traveled to Wayne, Nebraska, and competed in the Wayne State Wildcat Classic.
As the women’s race started at 4:00 p.m. and the men’s at 4:45 p.m., the athletes showed impressive determinism by achieving PRs and running in unpredictable weather conditions.
Recently, the NAIA National championship has changed the distance of the women’s race from 5K to 6K.
Even with this new difficulty, Emma Haley, Julia Fehr and Abby Ervin all hit new PRs. Haley, having a very impressive race dropped a minute off her previous time.
She was the first on the team to lead them to the finish line having a time of 24:49 and finished fifth out of 80 overall.
The team finished 4th out of six teams. As the women’s team hit new accomplishments and had a successful race, the men’s team had difficulties out of their control.
As the course was initially filled with the challenges of hills, they had to also face the unpredictability of the weather.
Winds reached up to 20mph and the coming and going of rain only made the race more challenging.
Despite these struggles, the men overcame the weather and had a successful finish.
Ben VanDeBerg, a sophomore on the team, finished first for the Raiders and seventh out of 81 overall while the team finished sixth out of 8 teams.
Wayne State Wildcat Classic was successful as the women’s team hit new PRs individually and was a learning experience for the men as the race was less than ideal.
On Oct 7, they compete again at Briar Cliff. This will provide new opportunities for both men’s and women’s teams to hopefully come back with new PRs and records.
