The Winona State University cross country teams ran their final regular season race at the Waxlax Invitational on Friday, Oct. 19. The race was their final tune up before the NSIC Championships start in early November. Both teams placed third in the meet, with a total of three teams on the men’s side and seven on the women’s.

A trio of Warrior men finished inside the top-10 at Friday’s 8000-meter race. Senior Jesse Frank led the way once again with a time of 26:43.3, placing fifth overall.

Up next was first-year runner Josh Jarpey (26:49.6), who finished eighth. The last Warrior runner to finish inside the top-10 was sophomore Cole Cohorst, finishing with a time of 26:55.6 that placed him ninth.

Sophomore Ross Stevensen placed 14th with a time of 27:15.0. Junior Isaiah Warning (27:49.1) and sophomore Kyle Turba (27:56.1) both finished inside the top-25,  placing 23rd and 24th respectively. Junior Micah Warning rounded out the six Warriors that placed inside the top-30 with a time of 28:40.0. A total of 45 runners were in the men’s competition.

There was also a trio of Warrior women that finished inside the top-10 in the 6000-meter race. Leading the way was junior Anna Rogahn, who placed second overall with a time of 23:05.8. Senior Nikki Staffen was right behind her finishing fourth with a time of 23:14.3.

First-year runner Allison Hendrickson (23:33.1) rounded out the Warriors and finished inside the top-10. The next three finishers for Winona State were all underclassmen, sophomore Katie Lorenz (24:15.2), then Carly Vandenhouten (24:26.5) and Becca Richtman (24:35.9) all placed inside the top-30. 80 runners participated in the women’s race.

The Waxlax Invitational proved to be an interesting time for sophomore Ross Stevensen.

“My experience at the Waxlax Invitational was unique. The course was fairly flat but the downside is that it was also very windy. This was also the smallest collegiate race I had ran before, with less than fifty runners total. The combination of these factors made this race a very different challenge compared to our other races so far,” Stevensen said.

The Warriors cross country teams will begin their postseason on Nov. 3 in Aberdeen, South Dakota in the NSIC Championships.

Stevensen also touched on beginning the postseason.

“We are both nervous and excited to see what we can do at conference and regionals. Every meet so far has led up to these two and this is where our training truly pays off. From here on out, we just have to trust that we trained the best we could since the year before to prepare for this,” Stevenson said. “For a lot of guys, conference is their last race of the season, and for Jesse Frank, regions is the last race of his career. There is lots of energy within the team because of this, and we’re ready to see what we’re all really capable of in these next two races.”