After a tough 2018 season due to injuries, The UNK women’s cross-country team opens 2019 with hope for the future. They bring back young talent along with key new faces to improve on a 15th place finish at regionals a season ago.
“We have three people in our top five returning and a lot of new runners that I am excited to see how they do,” junior Destiny Reinke said. “I think we can do better this year than we did last year.”
One new face for the Lopers who looks to be a leader is Maddie Bach. At junior college Iowa Central, she qualified for the 2016 NJCAA Division 1 Championships. Last spring Bach showed here potential with four victories and eight top-five finishes in the indoor and outdoor track season for UNK.
“Maddie is, in my opinion, are top newcomer. This year we have a lot of incoming freshman who look good and some sophomores who are coming on strong due to good summer training. Last year was more of that mental break for the freshman that can be hard to get through and now their much more confident,” said Reinke.
This season the Lopers look to improve upon a fourth-place finish from conference a season ago. Two teams the women have their eyes set upon beating is Fort Hayes State and defending MIAA champion Pittsburg State.
“Pitt and Fort Hayes State are two teams we really look to match when we go to any cross country meet. We look at the runners they have and then gauge ourselves and what we have to do to compete with them,” said Reinke.
One of the major’s hurdles in any sport is building that sense of comradery and friendship that makes the great team’s stand out from the good. With a good mix of upperclassman and underclassmen, the team it seems has accomplished this.
“We are a very close team. We’re meshing really well together which is great because then we can fuel off each other,” said Reinke.
“Everybody wants to see the others do well and does a great job of being supportive,” redshirt junior Maddie Bach said.
One obvious setback for UNK is the size of their team this year. They have seventeen runners on the team this year, where most Division II teams have 25 to 30 runners. It’s makes staying healthy even more vital for the Lopers.
“We have a very small team so if injuries come along, they will definitely play a bigger role. If everybody can stay healthy, we should be good,” said Reinke.
The Loper women’s cross-country season will begin on September 6 at the Augustana Twilight Invitational in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
