Reagan Johnson/Winonan

The Winona State University men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in their fourth meet of the season Friday, Oct. 9. The Bob Waxlax Invitational in Sauk Rapids, Minn. marked the halfway point of the season for the Warriors.

Coach Brett Ayers anticipated Friday’s meet to be “a really good conference review for us.”

Teams in the NSIC present at the meet were University of Minnesota Duluth, Minnesota State University, Mankato, St. Cloud State University and Southwest Minnesota State.

Junior Seth Reel won his first collegiate meet for the men’s team with a winning time of 25:28.9, beating the closest runner by 13 seconds.

“It was probably one of the most exciting experiences I’ve ever had in my life,” Reel said. “I’ve been working really hard the last three years and it was nice to finally have my hard work pay off.”

Ayers said Reel has struggled with serious injuries the past two years and he is finally ready to compete this year.

“He’s really excited to be healthy and running fast,” Ayers said.

Reel said before each race he and his teammates walk through the course before they run and formulate a plan to running a good race.

“Breaking it down with my teammates, that was the moment I knew I was going to be totally okay,” Reel added.

After Reel crossed the finish line, Minnesota Duluth claimed second through seventh in the standings. Not far behind Reel was Winona State sophomore Reed Parent, taking eighth place with a time of 26:08.5. Sophomore Charles Schauer ran a time of 26:28.4 and took 16th. First-year standout Drew Selzler kept up with the pack placing 18th with a time of 26:31.0, followed by senior Shane Carlson in 19th with a time of 26:34.5.

The men’s team placed third overall out of the six teams that competed. Minnesota Duluth and Minnesota State finished first and second, respectively. The Warriors and the Mavericks ended with 62 points, but the latter team won the tiebreaker.

On the women’s side, senior Jordan Paschke led the team placing fifth with a time of 22:08.1. Finishing right behind Paschke was Winona State sophomore Raissa Hanson taking sixth with a time of 22:12.8.

“She’s been running right behind Paschke and she has really looked strong,” Ayers said.

Warriors who also placed in the top 15 were junior Madeline Martell in 13th with a time of 23:00.9, followed by first-year Emily Tyrell in 14th and junior Amanda Kaiser in 15th.

The women’s team placed second out of seven teams with a total of 53 points, finishing behind Minnesota Duluth with 24 points. Minnesota State placed third with a total of 83 points.

“The season has been a little up and down,” Ayers said. “We’ve taken some time to come together and have been working on closing the gap between their first and fifth runners.”

Winona State will compete at the Drews-Neubauer Invitational hosted by the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse next Saturday, Oct. 17, in West Salem, Wis.

It will be their last meet before competing at the NSIC Conference Championships on Oct. 24 in St. Paul. Reel said he hopes to be in the top ten at this meet.

“We’ve been pretty successful the last three or four years or so,” Ayers said. “I feel confident they can step up in the big moment and do what we need to do. This is what we run for now; it’s really fun when your running for conference championships and regional championships. It’s a really good test and that’s what we like to do.”