Falcon Spotlight

Kody Guden

At last season’s WIAC Cross Country Championship, then-freshman Kody Guden was UW-River Falls’ sixth runner.

At the Falcon Invitational, UWRF’s first meet of the year, Guden was the first Falcon to cross the finish line. According to Guden, this improvement didn’t just come out of the blue.

“I put in more mileage,” Guden said. “For this summer I doubled my mileage from last summer. I put in 400 miles this summer, compared to 200 last year, so a big change there.”
Guden, a native of Edgar, Wis., and a dairy science major on campus, currently leads a pack of talented sophomores, which account for five of the team’s top seven runners.

However, Guden wasn’t always a cross country runner.
“In high school I basically ran a little bit of track, but I didn’t really do long distance until my junior year,” Guden said. “I actually played football at the beginning of my sophomore year. One of my friends told me, ‘Junior year you should take up cross country.’ I did, and ended up being the second runner on the team. Ever since I’ve just been running.”

Despite having recent success at the Falcon Invitational, Guden’s favorite part of the season happens before the team even hits their first race.
“We have cross country camp coming in. It was really fun my freshman year when I got to learn and know everybody,” Guden said.