The Truman State University cross country teams finished their seasons at the National Collegiate Athletic Association Midwest Regional meet with the men taking 22nd out of 31 with 656 points and the women taking 21st out of 32 with 622 points.
There were three conferences competing in the NCAA Midwest Regional, making it one of the largest meets Truman has competed in all season. The men placed ninth among the Great Lakes Valley Conference schools that competed and the women took eighth — one place higher than their showing at the GLVC Championships.
“We competed better than the last meet and I was happy with that,” head coach Tim Schwegler said. “A couple individuals didn’t have their best day, but that is [the] sport.”
Sophomore Madeline Bostick, who led the Bulldogs for the women coming in 107th place, said the last meet of the season went well because the team was competing better than it had in the previous meet. With a time of 23:21, Bostick broke her personal record for the 6K.
Bostick said she credits the better performance to nicer weather and the excitement of the larger meet. Despite beating her personal record, Bostick said she had higher expectations.
“I had a little bit bigger goals in mind for myself and I wanted to place a little higher than I did,” Bostick said. “But it was a really tough regional and I’m still happy with the way everything went.”
Bostick said the competition was tough, with seven nationally ranked teams running against the Bulldogs.
“I think it was a good experience because a lot of the meets this season we haven’t had as much competition to run with, we haven’t had a lot of people to track down in the last mile and I felt like we did a good job of racing against people,” Bostick said.
Junior Tom Cormier, who led the Bulldogs for the men with a 103rd placing and 34:24 runtime, said he thought the meet went well, despite the course terrain still being muddy from the last meet. He said the course was so muddy that one of the turns was made wider to accommodate the runners.
“A lot more people, definitely some fast times, faster people, a lot of people to run with,” Cormier said. “There are some very high-end individuals that come from other conferences that we’ve never raced before — or at least never have had direct competition with.”
Schwegler said the season had some ups and downs, but both the men’s and women’s teams were good to work with this season.
Cormier said the men’s team showed improvement throughout the season, despite it being somewhat of a lull recruiting season.
For next season, Bostick said she hopes the women’s team will place higher in the GLVC and that the team will have fewer injuries throughout the season.
Cormier said next year the men’s team will be looking to expand and incorporate more runners on the team. He said he hopes the team continues to work together to improve next season, and while the team packs well when running, he hopes new team members will continue doing that.