On Friday, August 25, The Wagner Red Raiders started their 2023 Cross Country season at The Beresford XC Invite. This was one of the largest meets the Wagner Cross Country will take on. This meet had 31 teams and a total of 668 runners and the Raiders faced teams from class A and B. With this many in a race, the kids all said it was really hard in the first mile to turn the corners while running the race and worrying about not tripping over the feet of the other runnersThis was an extremely challenging meet but a great one to start the season off.

Wagner brought 12 runners to this meet, one of whom medaled in her race; Taya Stone. Taya placed 15th out of 83 total runners in her JV race. She battled hard in her race, running it in a time of 19:04. The JV ran a 4K race. In the boy’s JV, Owen Bekanich ran an 18:35 with Jason Weston hot on his heels coming in with a time of 18:41.

The Girl’s Varsity race, which is a 5K, had two of Wagner’s runners participating; Lydia Yost and Presley Slaba. Presley came in with a time of 23:13, and Lydia came in with a 25:49. This race had 79 runners and these girls had to battle for the first mile to find their place in this pack of runners and they held on strong. The Boy’s Varsity race had 99 runners. After the first mile, the kids settled in and Caleb Zephier finished with a time of 21:19 and Jackson Rolston wasn’t far behind coming in with a 21:58.

Wagner is very pleased with the younger runners they have this year. Wagner has Wyatt Roberts (Grade 8), Alex Reiter (Grade 7), Grady Bartunek (Grade 7), Cooper Slaba (Grade 6), and Sean Roberts (Grade 6) running in this group. These kids run in the Junior High race which is a 3K race. Looking at the start line of this race was unbelievable with the amount of racers. In the boy’s JH race alone, there were 127 runners! So, when we say these boys had to battle, it was a very true statement. Cooper Slaba came out strong and just missed the medals by 6 places; he ran a 12:15. Grady Bartunek ran a great race with a 12:50. Alex Reiter held strong coming in with a 13:31. Wyatt Roberts ran a 17:52, and Sean Roberts came in with an 18:42.

These kids battled hard in this first race. Not only did they have to battle all the other runners, but also they had to battle the humidity and the nerves of their very first race of the season. They did an awesome job and we couldn’t be prouder. Wagner’s next meet is Tuesday, August 29 in Gregory followed by the Canton race on September 5th.