The Pipers men’s and women’s cross country teams crossed state lines into Wisconsin last Saturday, Oct. 17 for their final tune-up before the MIAC Championship race.

Senior Nathan Rock led the men with a 34th-place finish out of 333 runners and sophomore Meg Griffin led the women with an 85th-place finish out of 324 runners. Overall, the men finished 13th in the 21 team field and the women finished 20th out of 22.

Junior Sarissa Falk, one of the captains of the women’s team, has been happy with the performance of the women’s team this year.

“We keep surprising people,” she said. “We have surprised ourselves as well. I think we’re going to keep getting better and better and just keep moving forward.”

Griffin crossed the line at 24:27 (85th place), senior Brenna Kennedy followed at 24:37 (90th place), sophomore Mariah Gallagher finished in 24:52 (104th place), Falk timed in at 24:56, and first-year Madeline Dopp rounded out Hamline’s top five at 24:57 (108th place).

Senior Ronnie Stimson sees the men’s team as underdogs this year.

“We’ve been under the radar this season, not too many people are expecting much and it is always a little more fun to be the underdog and overall we have had some great success, both individually and as a team this season,” he said.

Rock paced the men’s team with a time of 25:45, junior James Logan crossed in 50th place with a time of 26:17, and Hamline’s top five were rounded out by Stimson with a time of 27:21 (95th place), first-year Tony Duchenes with a time of 27:24 (97th place), and sophomore Sam Jewson with a time of 27:42 (104th place).

Many of the runners are looking forward to the MIAC championship race, including junior Tyler Lerbakken.

“It’s like our home turf, it’s over at Como golf course and we’re the closest school to there,” said Lerbakken. “Since we don’t really have a home course we think of that as our home course and that’s always a fun one to compete at.”

The women’s cross country team has regularly been the smallest on campus, and is one of the smallest in the MIAC. Injuries are sometimes a problem for small rosters like theirs.

“At the beginning of the season to now I’ve struggled with injuries to my shins being too weak and getting tight calves with the shock from the increase in miles,” said first-year Nadine Thoemke. “We’re trying to build up the team to include more girls, because in the conference meet we race seven girls with two alternates which doesn’t leave much room for injuries.”

The men and women’s teams work together as they share a head coach. The teams build lots of camaraderie with each other with all the time they spend with each other.

“We’re always doing practice together, we have the same coaches, we travel to the same meets, so everything is the same, we just have some altered workouts and separate races,” said Stimson.

Abbie Cyr, one of the three seniors on the women’s team, is wrapping up her last year at Hamline and her last season with the cross country team.

“It’s crazy to think that every race I go into is my last one at that course and it’s really emotional but I couldn’t ask for a better team to be on,” she said. “There are a lot of memories. Every day at practice my teammates are the ones I want to go see and they’re just goofy and it’s great.”

With just the conference and regional meets left on his schedule, Stinson is looking to finish his career on a high note.

“The conference meet is always the meet of the season,” he said. “It’s where all the different MIAC schools come together, we have a huge support group from our alumni and from a variety of other students from Hamline, and it’s fun.”

For both teams, the future is looking up with lots of runners gaining experience.

“Our big goal is to keep improving,” said Lerbakken. “As the years go on, we’re trying to build off the year before. Our training program built by Coach Schmaedeke works really well in that aspect; each year builds off the last.”

The training for cross country is largely based around the miles run between meets, as well as the core work, stretching and meditation led by coaches.

“There’s a reason the older girls are faster,” said Thoemke. “You grow with the training. It’s hard as a first-year to see a great improvement but as we get more training we build muscle and stamina.”

The men finish off their season with their conference meet that begins at 3:15 pm on Saturday Oct. 31, the Fall Finale meet on Friday Nov. 6 at 4:40 pm, and the Division-III meet on Saturday Nov. 14 at 12:00 pm. The women finish their season with their conference meet starting at 2:15 pm on Saturday Oct. 31, the Fall Finale meet on Friday Nov. 6 at 4:40 pm, and the Division-III meet on Saturday Nov. 14 at 11:00 am.