This past weekend was an unusual one for the Waynesburg University cross country program. 

Usually, a Saturday meet will consist of both the men’s and women’s teams competing at the same location, but that wasn’t the case Sept. 14. The men’s team ran and took second at St. Vincent while the women had the week off.

Head coach Chris Hardie acknowledged that the decision to split the teams was thought of as a head scratcher by some, but knew that it was a logical choice. 

“We wanted to see what St. Vincent was like on their home course,” he said. [We wanted to] kind of watch them, see their progression they’ve made from [the meet at] Westminster until today. So it was more of a scouting exhibition, but then also to see how we matched up head to head just in kind of a smaller setting, and then prepare ourselves accordingly for [the conference championship meet].”

The Jackets finished behind only St. Vincent, the preseason favorites in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference, with 56 points compared to St. Vincent’s 23. Wayensburg faced limited competition, as only nine total schools that ran in Latrobe were scored. 

Pacing the way for the Jackets once again was freshman standout Jac Cokley. Cokley led all Jacket runners with a fourth place finish and a time of 28:01.68, leading the Jackets for the second straight meet. For Hardie, Cokley has a set plan going into every meet, and that forward thinking is leading to his success. 

“He’s special in that he’s very serious about his strategy every week and preparing himself for each race,” Hardie said. “We’ll sit down and talk strategy usually Thursday or Friday and figure out what’s the best course of action for him.”

Although a freshman led the way for Waynesburg on the scoreboard, most of the Jackets’ production comes from a deep junior class. Jordan Payne was Waynesburg’s second top 10 performer, finishing with a time of 28:10.21. Mac Colomb cracked the top 20, finishing in 19th at 28.56.57. Matt Durgin and Kyle Warmbein took 21st and 26th respectively, while seniors Mason Klopp and Jared Scott rounded out the Jackets top seven.

Since they arrived at Waynesburg, Hardie has seen the potential in his junior class. Now, he sees everything coming together. 

“I have been really impressed with the consistency this year,” he said. “The first two years in our program, they had shown signs they they were going to be good, but they hadn’t put a season together, and they’re starting to put a season together where they’re coming out and running times every week that are comparable, that are good, that are helping us compete at a high level.”

Waynesburg has a while before it competes again. The Jackets will be back in action at the Paul Short Run in Bethlehem, PA, Oct. 5.