With less than two weeks until the postseason begins, Hamline’s premier long distance runners are preparing to turn things around and compete for a conference title. 

The fourth and final regular meet of the season took place over the weekend in La Crosse, Wisconsin, in which the men’s team took 27 out of 28 place and the women placed 17 of 30 .  

The men’s team has had a less than stellar season to this point, but do not have a full roster at meets which has led to less total team points. They finished dead-last at the Bethel Twin Cities Twilight, scoring only 138 points at the meet. Despite this, the team has improved throughout the season as they have slowly climbed the ladder each meet. Team leaders such as senior Aric Brodie and the Oracle’s own Michael Kurtz consistently place for Hamline.

This recent success is building confidence in the team and is being used as motivation for the end of the season. First-year runner Lucas LiaBraaten feels that this is going to lift the whole team up and get them ready for what is ahead.

“Over the past few weeks we’ve had our hardest workouts and we’ve been really focused on those and specifically for races we have goals to focus on throughout race week,” Liabraaten said. “I feel really good about where we are. Recent workouts have gone well and the guys are feeling ready to put up some PRs and I’m hoping for a pretty big one this weekend.”

The women’s team has had more success placing in the middle of the pack at their meets so far. The season started off with a bang when fifth-year senior Alexandra Maddux finished in second at the Bethel Twin Cities Twilight leading the Pipers to a third place finish overall. 

This set the tone for what to expect for the rest of the season as the following week they finished fifth place out of 10 teams at the Hamline invite at the Highland 9-Hole Golf Course.

 Maddux had another strong showing at the UW-Platteville invite. The former all-MIAC runner finished in third place and was less than 10 seconds away from running away with a victory. Maddux led Hamline on Saturday as well, finishing in the top 20. 

Sophomore Libby Roberdeau also made her presence known in Platteville finishing in 10 place out of 71 runners, and 119 place on Saturday in Wisconsin. 

After a long season both teams will get their chance to show what they are really made of on Oct. 29 back at the Highland 9-Hole Golf Course to compete against their conference rivals in the MIAC championship. 

Both teams hope to make a statement and finish at high ranks among other MIAC schools. Individual runners will also have their chance to qualify for NCAA regionals which will be held Nov. 12. 

As the season comes to a close, both teams have accomplished goals and developed to the standard they intended to in August. Their new goals will propel them to a positive postseason.