Kylie Bridenhagen/Winonan

The Winona State University women’s cross country team made history this past weekend in Joplin, Missouri.
For the first time in program history, they ran as a team, competing for a national title at the NCAA National Championship meet.

In all their regular season meets, they placed no lower than fifth as a team. They were given this opportunity after placing second as a team at the NCAA Central Regional Championships. In Joplin, the team ran “the same course that they had run at Regionals,” said head coach Adam Boothe.

The national championship race was run over 6000m, or a 6K. Going into this meet, Winona State was ranked 10th in the nation in the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association polls, which is a feat in itself.

“We knew we wanted to place at least what we were ranked or higher,” Jordan Skelly said.

The Warriors did just that; in their first national championship race as a team, they placed ninth with 304 points out of 32 teams. This was one place better than they were ranked going into this championship meet.

Although they did not take home the team title, this is an incredible task to accomplish.  Of all the women’s division two cross country teams in the United States, Winona State University is now ninth in the nation.

After the day was done, Grand Valley State from Allendale, Michigan, were the division two women’s cross country champions, with 101 points.  This is the second time in their school history that they have taken home this title. Just three points behind was the 2011 national championship winning team, Augustana. They finished in second with 104 points. The third place team was Adams State with 109 points.

Of the 249 runners racing that Saturday morning, senior, Kayla Gudmundson was the first Warrior to cross the finish line.

This was an amazing last race for her in her collegiate cross country career, as she broke the school’s individual record by 14 seconds.  She was 30th overall in a time of 21:11.0.

Jessica Young, who has been one of Winona’s strongest runners this season, was the second runner to cross for the school.

She did so in 21:13.1 and placed 35th as an individual. Jordan Skelly was 75th with a time of 21:56.2. Jordan Paschke crossed the line in 22:29.2 and was 113th overall. The fifth Warrior to cross the finish was Megan Snyder. She was 123rd with an individual time of 22:35.7.  All of the Winona State runners placed in the top 125 individual runners.

Adams State senior, Alicia Nelson was the overall individual champion of the day. She finished in 20:03.3. In second place was Susan Tanui, a junior from Alaska Anchorage. Rounding out the top three for individual titles was senior Katie Spratford from Shippensburg. Her time was 20:22.4.

For Young, her best memory this season was, “Growing so much as a team. We’ve become a family who influences and inspires one another to live and love everyday together.”

Look for the Warriors to be back running distance events for the track and field team this indoor and outdoor season.

Contact Kylie at [email protected]