The blood pumped in his ears, the last ounce of energy left in his body surged through him as he sprinted to the finish. His foot stepped over the finish line as the timekeeper clicked his watch. 26:46, a new season best by 40 seconds, securing his First Team All-Conference slot. With his hands on his knees, covered in sweat and heart still racing, sophomore Ethan Nieroda smiled.
All 13 runners on Webster University’s cross country team set personal records (PR) at the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC) meet on Nov. 2 in Litchfield, Illinois. The men’s team, with only seven runners, placed third at the meet. They had a combined score of 71 points. The women’s team with six runners finished sixth overall with a score of 154 points.
Nieroda finished sixth place with an 8K time of 26:46. He received a First Team All-Conference award for the second year in a row. Only seven other men’s cross country athletes have received multiple All-Conference awards.
“When I crossed the finish line, of course I was very tired, but immediately excited because I knew right away I had placed First Team All-Conference,” Nieroda said. “Even though it was my second time doing that, it still felt surreal, especially with so many other fast people and teams in the conference.”
Senior William Howells was the next Gorlok to cross the finish line in 15th place, earning Second Team All-Conference honors.
Sophomore Jonathan Imboden was selected as Webster’s representative for the men’s SLIAC All-Sportsmanship team. Senior Abigail Szydlowski was named Webster’s representative on the women’s SLIAC All-Sportsmanship team.
“It felt great winning the sportsmanship award, it was a surprise to me,” Szydlowski said. “I’m glad that the coaches think that I deserve that award and that my teammates look up to me. The road to conference was a lot of work and training, a lot of building endurance and speed, as well as learning how to pace myself and run my race.”
Freshman Madison Cox, who was the top finisher for Webster at the SLIAC Championship, came in 25th place, clocking a 6K PR of 27:51 — 1:22 faster than her previous best. Freshman Brie Inman also crushed her previous PR by 1:50 to finish the 6K in under 30 minutes for the first time.
The road to the conference championships took hard work and determination from the team. They trained hard, running over 25 miles per week.
“The team has progressed quite a bit throughout the year. We are an extremely young team and for the most part, our seniors are still new to the sport. Across the board we have had consistent improvement throughout the season,” coach Kyle Robinson said.
While each athlete ran their fastest time of the year, the hard work doesn’t stop as the team prepares for regionals.
“I believe that two things can be true. We can be happy with the progress and improvement that we made at the SLIAC Championship, but also very hungry for more success,” Robinson said. “We wanted to place higher as a team on each side and we will continue to work hard to reach that goal.”
The Gorloks will travel to Rock Island, Illinois, on Saturday, Nov. 16, to compete in the NCAA Midwest Regional Championships at Saukie Golf Course. The regional meet is one of the hardest in the nation, with over 30 teams competing. The ticket to nationals is through regionals, with only the top team from each region qualifying for nationals.
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