On Thursday, October 16, as the Wagner Raiders Cross Country team pulled into the parking lot of their Regional Cross Country meet, the thunder, rain, and lightning came in too. This was the day originally scheduled for their Region meet but, it was clear that the weather had a different idea for us. At first, they were delaying the race by an hour, then a bit longer. After 2 hours of taking shelter in our buses, the meet was officially postponed as the weather was not going to subside at all that evening. It was a frustrating situation for the racers as this is the race they prepared for and it was to be a 3:30 start. Instead, their race was rescheduled for the following day at 11:00am. This time change could have made it difficult for many runners, but not for The Raiders Cross Country Team.

The following day, Friday, October, 17, the sun was shining and the course was drying out making for a perfect day to run. The postponement was a good choice. The varsity races would start us off. Only the top 20 runners in varsity to cross the finish line are qualified for state. Starting the races were the boys’ Varsity 5K. Wagner had Grady Bartunek and Cooper Slaba running in this race for them. Both boys came out strong and knew the course well as Wagner raced at this course the week before. Grady really turned on the GRIT and successfully qualified for state coming in 14th with a time of 18:12.. Cooper Slaba also had a great effort coming in with a 20:07, falling short of the top 20. In girls’ Varsity, Taya Stone ran for Wagner. She ran a great race coming in with a 23:15 but not qualifying for state.

In the JV division, The boys ran first. Mason Tjeerdsma came in 16th with a time of 17:15, Wyatt Havranek came in with an 18:41, Camden Wilch came in with a 20:22, and Atreyu Almagues came in with a new PR of 20:58.

This has been a great year for Wagner Cross Country. Every runner has pushed themselves as well as each other to help out the team. We are fortunate to have such enthusiastic runners with the determination and mental power to run long distance.