Cross country runs toward WIAC

After having a week to rest, the UW-River Falls men’s and women’s cross country teams are back in action this weekend after having a week off to rest.

For both teams this will be the final meet of the season before the conference meet on Oct. 28.

The last meet the Falcons competed in was the Blugold Open. Both the men’s and women’s finished fifth place to head into this weekend on a strong note.

The team will compete at the Drews/Neubauer Invitational on Saturday at UW-La Crosse. The men will race beginning at 10:30 a.m. and the women are on the course at 11:30. 

Freshman Tony Casci said that head Coach Don Glover feels that these are two of the best teams in Falcon history. This season, the men’s team also had the biggest team in history. This was the first time, tryouts had to be held for placement on the roster.

“This season has been going great. We are looking great as a team,” senior Chris Wenig said. “The team is doing better than I thought, which is fantastic. We have some real depth to the team this year. We have some really fast underclassmen and some great upperclassmen showing them how to go out and get some great times.”

“The men’s team goal is to beat Eau Claire at conference,” Casci said. “We want to be in the top five.”

While the women and men practice on different routes, they are still very close.

“It’s more of a family, we do everything together,” Casci said. “We start our practices with a meeting together.”

With the end of the season drawing near, it’s important for the runners to stay healthy.

Unfortunately cold weather and injuries have affected the Falcons.

“We have had some injuries and also the cold and flu has been plaguing some of our runners,” Wenig said. “We are going to start tapering in the next few weeks to get us ready for conference at La Crosse and Regions in Davenport, Iowa.”

The WIAC meet will be at UW-La Crosse as well on Oct. 28. Both sets of races are scheduled to begin at 11 a.m.