The Wayne State College men finished 11th and the women placed 12th at the 2019 Northern Sun Conference Cross Country Championships hosted by Wayne State College Saturday at the Wayne Country Club.
The University of Mary won a fourth consecutive women’s conference championship with 21 points followed by Augustana in second at 37. Winona State (127), Minot State (129) and Minnesota Duluth (140) rounded out the top five teams.
Freshman Jade Rickard was the top Wayne State runner, finishing 46th out of a field of 155 runners with a time of 24:09 on the 6,000-meter course. Sophomore Allie Rosener was close behind in 54th place at 24:30.
Other Wildcat runners included Kim Johnson (91st, 25:39), Brianna Crouch (98th, 25:53), Wayne native Andrea Torres (102nd, 26:05), Alex Bauer (115th, 26:43), Amanda Mote (121st, 26:57), Molly McCartney (132nd, 27:51) and Wakefield native Josephine Peitz (136th, 28:12).
In men’s action Wayne State posted an 11th place finish, led by Bailey Peckham and Dylan Kessler.
For the 10th time in 11 years, Augustana brought home the men’s team title with 37 points, well ahead of second place MSU Moorhead with 67 points. Sioux Falls (92), University of Mary (106) and Concordia-St. Paul (141) filled out the top five teams.
Peckham was the first Wildcat runner to cross the finish line covering the 8,000-meter course in a time of 27:55 to place 54th out of 113 runners. Kessler was next in 61st place at 28:20 and Bryce Holcomb was 70th in 28:57.
Other Wildcat runners were: Nathan Pearson (82nd, 29:28), Jakob Kemper (88th, 29:54), Brock Hegarty (92nd, 30:09) and Nathan Hiemer (100th, 31:44).
Wayne State will close the season on Saturday, Nov. 9 at the NCAA Division II Central Region Championships held in Joplin, Mo.
