From October 8, 2022

WAYNESBURG (Oct. 8) – October 8th was the culmination of all the Homecoming festivities at Waynesburg University. 

The first notable event of the day: the annual 5K on campus. 

It was not, however, just for community members and Waynesburg alumni, as cross country head coach Chris Hardie treated it as an extra opportunity to put his runners to work.

     “We had a lighter week two weeks ago, so we decided to run a little bit hard this past week in preparation for the Homecoming 5K,” Hardie said. “Our goal was to open up the race aggressively and see how long we could hold that aggressive pace.”

Hardie treated the event like any other meet, seeing the unofficial race as an opportunity to “strategically work on some things we hope to employ in future races.”

    Following the Homecoming 5K, Waynesburg Cross Country will be competing in only one more meet prior to the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Championships in late October. 

“With our main races being PACs and Regionals, we will taper for those races a few weeks from now,” Hardie said. “The team has had a long stretch of good strong workouts and it is starting to show in their overall consistency.”

Despite all of the training that went into the race, Hardie did not shy away from how special the entire day was for him and his runners.

“It was a very special weekend,” Hardie said. “It was great to see some alumni run in the race and join us for an honorary bruncheon afterward.  The current team had the chance to interact with some runners of the past, and this was incredible to witness firsthand.”

 Both teams will be traveling to Gettysburg this Saturday for the Aubrey Shenk Invitational as a final tune-up before the PAC Championships on Oct. 29.