When the Waynesburg University men’s cross country team ran at the 2019 Presidents’ Athletic Conference Championships Nov. 2, a top-three finish was the goal. The Yellow Jackets met that objective, placing third.

Waynesburg set another objective before running at the NCAA Division III Mideast Regionals this past weekend. This one was a top 20 finish, which the Jackets have never achieved. Although Waynesburg failed to meet this goal, head coach Chris Hardie wasn’t disappointed by the result and doesn’t feel his team was, either. 

“A lot of [setting goals] is going off on projections,” Hardie said. “I didn’t project out very well, but that’s ok. I [probably] didn’t do the best job of that. Because I did have us anywhere from 18th to 20th. But visually and looking at times, they ran really well, and conditions weren’t great.”

With November in full swing, the Jackets ran through sub-40 degree temperatures in the late-morning sun. Just as he did at the PAC championships, junior Jordan Payne paced the Jackets, finishing the course at 27:25.1. Like Hardie, Payne felt the Jackets performed well through the conditions. 

“I know that this year, people had been throwing out the word ‘historic’ and how we did really well at all our meets and PAC’s,” Payne said. “At regionals I believe the best we’d ever done was 27th, and this year we came in 27th. I’m looking forward to next year.”

That is, if Payne is with the program.

Although Payne is just a junior, he is looking into transferring to Penn State-Harrisburg for an engineering opportunity next fall. Payne’s status for next season is uncertain, but his role within the program is not. 

“He’s just such a smart runner,” Hardie said. “He knows himself and his style. He settled back. I think he was fifth on the team at the mile, and then just continued to cut down until he got up toward the front there at the end. He’s just been really consistent all year, and it’s starting to really pay off for him.”

Payne said that the PAC Championships are usually where he performs best. This year, however, he put an emphasis on finishing strong at regionals, and feels he was able to meet that objective.

“Usually I peak at PAC’s, and then at regionals, I don’t do so well,” Payne said. “This year, I came into regionals with a goal of doing really well, and then I turned around and did that, which was really nice to see.”

Several of Payne’s classmates had strong performances as well. Nate Jecelin was the second Waynesburg runner to cross the finish line at 27:30. Behind Jacelin was freshman Jac Cokley, who finished at 27:35.9. Two more juniors, Matt Durgin [27:40.5] and Mac Colomb [27.44.7] rounded out the Jackets’ scoring five. 

What impressed Hardie more than anything was that the range of Waynesburg’s top five runners was only 17 seconds, a number he believes was up there with any school in the region.

“We have never had a spread like that,” Hardie said. “Probably one of the best in the region. It just shows how well the guys work together and how kind of chunked together they are.”

The Jackets have a strong core coming back next season, with Colomb, Jecelin, Durgin and possibly Payne taking on the senior leadership roles. Payne hopes to be back, but if he isn’t, he’s pleased with his career to this point.

“I still have the goal of coming back, and if that was my last race, I’m very happy with how it turned out,” Payne said.