The Waynesburg University Yellow Jackets men’s cross country team looks to compete at the NCAA Division III Mideast regional meet this Saturday as they travel to Newville.

Last season on Nov. 12, 2016, the Waynesburg Yellow Jackets participated in the regional meet and finished 33rd out of 52 teams. Junior Jacob Pryor was the first person to cross the line for the Yellow Jackets last year. Fellow classmate Joel Kuzminski finished right behind Pryor, sealing the second spot for Waynesburg.

Mason Klopp rounded out the top three for the men’s cross country team at the meet last year.

These three runners look to help lead the other seven runners both physically and mentally for the race Saturday, Nov. 11.

Sophomore Jared Scott will also represent the second-year students of the men’s cross country program. Freshmen Mac Colomb, Nate Jecelin, Jordan Payne, Matt Mansfield, Matt Durgin and Kyle Warmbein will travel to the regional meet as well.

“Physically, they are in a period of sharpening the sword which basically means that they have had a long 15 weeks of training, and doing the longer repeat workouts are ineffective right now,” said head coach Chris Hardie. “Mentally, they are kind of drained after 15 weeks, so we keep it fresh and limit the amount of training they do.”

Kuzminski and Pryor look to lead this team moving towards the regional meet this Saturday.

“I think I am physically prepared coming in, but I need a little bit of fine tuning here and there,” said Pryor. “Mentally, I want to catch up on rest and be at peace with myself.”

Kuzminski takes one race at a time and tends to not overthink the race.

“Honestly, it’s like any other race which is how I go about with most of my races,” said Kuzminski. “As times go by and days get closer I start preparing differently like getting better foods in me and on Friday its more like a relaxation thing making sure I am healthy and ready to go.”

Durgin likes to strategically know what the course is like and he wants to prepare himself the best that he can.

“Physically, I am drinking a lot of water and making sure that I get a lot of sleep this week,” said Durgin. “I just check some things like how our team did last year and see how we are going to prepare for the course.”

Hardie said thinks his team could finish in the top 25, which is something that never has been done by the men’s cross country program at Waynesburg. The best finish to date was when the men’s cross country team finished in 29th out of 47 teams in 2014.

“I think this team is more talented and we have a deeper group from runner five to seven,” Hardie said.

Overall, both Kuzminski and Pryor expect to have a good performance at the meet this weekend.

Kuzminski is confident going into the race and thinks Hardie has prepared him well for regionals.

“I’ve had a good training season overall, so I think that will still help me during the week,” said Kuzminski. “I ran a 28:30 my freshman year, so that is something I am shooting for this year.”

The Waynesburg men’s cross country team plans on taking 10 runners to the regional meet.

The event is scheduled to start at 12:30 p.m. at Big Spring High School.