First-year Max Sudrzynski was named second-team All-UAA after the UAA Championships. (Courtesy of Alex Paz | PazImages)

One of the No. 12 and No. 19 WashU women’s and men’s cross country teams’ strongest-held values is “not for me, for them.” This motto serves as a rallying call for each runner to know they are running not just for themselves but for their teammates.

“We have four core principles, and that’s one of those — like, ‘I’m not running for myself. I’m running for something greater. I’m running for everyone else on my team who needs me,’” senior Jillian Heth said.

The women’s and men’s cross country teams both placed fourth at the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championships on Nov. 1 in Edwardsville, Illinois. Two Bears placed in the top 10 at the conference meet, with sophomore Lucinda Laughlin earning First-Team All-UAA honors for her fifth-place finish and first-year Max Sudrzynski finishing 10th for Second-Team All-UAA honors.

No. 12 women’s team

On a cold morning, the WashU women’s cross-country team finished their regular season strong, with all five scoring runners placing in the top 30. With their performance, the Bears finished in the top four of the UAA Championships. Laughlin led the way with a strong 6,000-meter time of 21:22, placing fifth overall. This marked a personal best for the year, and at a perfect time.

“This race was loaded with studs, and the women’s UAA is easily the best conference in the NCAA hands down,” head coach Jeff Stiles wrote in a statement to Student Life about Laughlin’s performance. “I think this prepares her for a run at a top 20 finish at NCAA’s.”

Heth wasn’t far behind Laughlin, finishing with a time of 22:04. A standout finisher in the top five for WashU in every race this season, Heth sat down with Student Life and was asked the importance of teamwork and leadership.

“There’s a really big emphasis on showing, like, what you’ve learned, and putting that onto the underclassmen kind of, like, let me tell you what to do, and more of a this is what I’ve done in the past,” Heth said. “One of our big goals this year is to really move up together and work together.”

The team did just that as sophomore Lauren Raley finished in third for the Bears, with a time of 22:23. The strong performances continued all around, as next up for the Bears was sophomore Maddy Lee in a time of 22:31 and a 24th-place finish. Rounding out the scoring on Saturday was senior Katie Rector, with a final time of 22:37, only six places behind Lee. WashU’s depth was on full display, as the sixth and seventh runners, senior Riley Clark and junior Avery Nason, finished in 32nd and 38th (for scoring), keeping close with the rest of the pack in times of 22:40 and 22:45. From the second to seventh runner, the girls had a gap of only 40 seconds, showing a tight-knit pack of strong running. 

This challenging race featured strong competitors, including No. 4 New York University, No. 7 Carnegie Mellon University, and No. 10 University of Chicago. NYU won the race, with Carnegie Mellon and UChicago placing second and third, respectively, to round out the podium. The women’s team will now look to the national meet where they hope to place in the top five, according to Heth.

“Our goal is definitely top five at Nationals,” Heth said. “It’s a pretty lofty goal, especially now since we’ve lost a couple people, but I think we can really work together and get there at the end.” 

No. 19 Men’s team

WashU’s newest class made an immediate impact in their first conference championship claiming the top three spots for the Bears. For Sudrzynski, having a strong first-year squad has helped propel their success.

“It’s a pretty good feeling, just imagining all of these guys are just as experienced as you and they’ve gone through the same motions as you in terms of adjusting to college and going into this whole new racing style of cross country,” he said. “It almost makes you feel like you’re not alone in that and not only does it encourage you to push them, it also pushes yourself to see like other guys going through the same stuff as you just doing so well.”

Sudrzynski also credited the upperclassmen with helping him and his class integrate into collegiate running and the team.

“They’ve also just connected me to so many, so many guys, so many people,” Sudrzynski said. “They’ve really brought the freshmen to everyone else on the team, and credit to them just for just, just for walking up, welcoming us in, and just being great leaders.”

Sudrzynski led WashU in the 8,000-meter race, running a time of 25:08 for his best collegiate finish. First-years Charlie Houck and Rishi Shadaksharappa finished within 0.7 seconds of each other to notch 17th and 18th places respectively. Shadaksharappa beat his personal record by 30.2 seconds for a time of 25:23.

“Going into the meet he wanted to put himself upfront to compete with the top guys,” Stiles wrote about Sudrzynski.“He is truly a fearless competitor. To have that much confidence as a first year is very rare.”

Senior Conor Daly finished with a time of 25:28 to record 22nd place. Sophomore Sean Green was five seconds behind to round out the Bears’ top five and the top 25 of the men’s event. Sophomore Ben Lorenz placed 29th and senior Max Latshaw placed 36th to complete the Bears’ top seven runners, with times of 25:40 and 25:52 respectively.

The conference championship was a competitive meet with WashU facing two top-10 teams — No. 9 UChicago and No. 6 NYU, as well as No. 16 Carnegie Mellon University. NYU and UChicago placed first and second respectively with Carnegie Mellon placing four points ahead of WashU for third.

The Bears will take a week off before next competing at the NCAA Midwest Regional at Wartburg College in Iowa on Nov. 15 before heading to Spartanburg, South Carolina for the NCAA Championships on Nov. 22. 

While the team must first qualify at the regional meet, they have been focusing on training to peak at the NCAA Championship, according to Sudrzynski.

“We’ve been focusing on peaking for Nationals, and focused on training for Nationals and just trying to get the best result we can at Nationals,” he said. “And I’m very confident that we will do some damage there come from that time.”

For the team, Stiles hopes both teams will place in the top 20 at the national meet.

“We would like to have 2 teams in the top 20 at NCAA’s and hopefully 1 or more near the top 10,” Stiles wrote.