Mike Baumer Cross Country Invitational | Photo by Bethany Althauser | The Wright State Guardian
On Friday, Sept. 1, the Wright State men’s and women’s cross country teams opened their season at the Mike Baumer Cross Country Classic.
Mike Baumer was a three-time national qualifier for the Raiders and restarted the program in 1984. Baumer coached the team through 1989 and is now honored with this meet in his name.
How did the teams do?
The women’s team placed fifth out of 15 teams. The lead runners for the Raiders were Kaitlyn Miller in 16th and Emma Johnson in 39th. Johnson has made sure that the team still gets together and works out on days that practice is not mandatory. Because of this effort, the team saw positive results.
“We actually had quite a few girls who ran personal bests by quite a few seconds,” Johnson said. “So that was super exciting to see because we all were coming in not worrying about crushing it and just kind of having a good, strong first meet.”
The men’s team placed ninth of the 15 teams and were led by senior Alex McCarty who placed 14th. McCarty is satisfied with the race he and the rest of the team ran and looked at the race as a “rust-buster” to get ready to move into the rest of the season.
“We're looking forward to just building off of that and getting ready for the next race,” McCarty said.
End of season
Head coach Rick Williamson has been coaching the Raiders for 12 years. His workouts over the summer were about getting into shape and staying healthy for the season; however, by the end of the season, WSU will be racing competitively.
Williamson is happy with the start the teams had.
“It looks like the team ran really well for the first meet, as we tend to run better in October,” Williamson said.
The Raiders are hosting two more meets this season that fall on back-to-back weeks. The Wild Bill Invite will be on Friday, Oct. 20. WSU will also host the Horizon League Championship on Saturday, Oct. 28.
Johnson, McCarty and Williamson were all pleased with the support they got at the Mike Baumer Cross Country Classic and expect to see even more as they end their season back at home.
