The Wayne State College men’s and women’s cross country teams both placed 24th in the NCAA Div. II Central Region Championships held Saturday in Joplin, Mo.
The Wildcat women finished with a team score of 594 points. Their 24th place finish was a three-spot improvement from last year, and the team score of 594 was an improvement of 169 points from last year as well.
Jade Rickard was the top Wildcat finisher with the best run at a regional meet by a Wildcat runner in 10 years. The freshman placed 68th out of 223 runners with a time of 23:05 on the 6,000-meter course. It’s the fastest time for a Wildcat runner at regionals since Megan Zavorka in 2009 (22:53).
Allie Rosener was next in 114th place at 24:01, followed by Wayne sophomore Andrea Torres in 135thh place with a time of 24:30.
Other Wildcat finishers included Kim Johnson and Brianna Crouch (tied for 147th, 24:43), Marin Jetensky (166th place, 25:08) and Alex Bauer (172nd, 25:14).
The Wayne State men posted their best finish at regionals since 2016 and improvemed by 61 points in the team score.
Bailey Peckham was the top WSC runner, crossing the tape in 98th place out of a field of 192 runners with a time of 33:20 on the 10,000-meter course. Peckham improved by 45 positions from last year and improved his time by 38 seconds on the same course as last year.
Brock Hegarty and Dylan Kessler were the next Wildcat runners, with Hegarty placing 128th (34:10) and Kessler 133rd (34:14). Other Wildcat finishers included Bryce Holcomb (145th, 34:53), Jakob Kemper (147th, 34:53), Nathan Pearson (157th, 35:23) and Nathan Hiemer (169th, 35:54).
