Traveling out of state isn’t a normal thing for most of the sports teams on campus, but for the cross country squad, the first weekend in October means one thing: the annual trip to Fayetteville, AR for the Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival.

“We were supposed to be running a 10k, but due to all the rain and lightning they reduced the race to a 5k,” sophomore Noah Landguth said.

Although the team was happy with its performance, the weather impacted their times.

“It was a really tough course, because it was raining for about three hours,” sophomore Brock Bittner said.  “It was also very wet and cold.  The times weren’t as good as they could have been, but we still had an awesome time.”

Junior Grant Ballard finished first for the boys with an overall place of 8th, senior Joe Brands finished 11th and sophomore Noah Landguth finished third on the team with an overall place of 13th.

For the girls, there were multiple runners finishing in the top three of their age group.

“I got top 60 overall, then about 10 seconds after me was Chloe Tedder, and then Bailey Webb,” senior Abby Tedford said. “We all finished top three overall for our age group. We all had good races.”

While the weather presented some challenges, the team was able to learn from the experience and get a lot out of the trip.

“From this race we learned how to cope with racing conditions that are less than ideal, because sometimes weather doesn’t cooperate,” Landguth said.  “But it helps to know what to expect in a situation like that.”