The UND women’s cross country team prepares to run last Saturday at Ray Richards Golf Course in Grand Forks. Photo by Jennifer Friese/The Dakota Student.

On a cold and windy Saturday morning, runners from UND, North Dakota State, and the University of Manitoba traveled to Ray Richards Golf Course in Grand Forks to compete in the UND Ron Pynn Classic.

While the UND Cross Country runners had the “home field advantage” for the race, it was in-state rival North Dakota State that won the day.

NDSU’s Lucas Degree won the race with a time of 25:09.99.

In a hard fought race, UND’s Nate Peterson finished second with a personal best record of 25:12.28 and nearly beat the Bison runner.

“We ran the last few miles hard,” Peterson said. “I was kind of hoping to get the win at the end but got passed. He just had a faster kick than I did at the end.”

The rest of the UND runners had respectable days as well. The men’s cross country team had six finishes in the top 15 participants, while the women’s team had five of the top 10, with UND Senior Erin Wysocki leading all Green and White runners, coming in fourth.

While a team always sets out to win a race, there was another focus on the day.

In two weeks, UND will compete with the rest of the conference in the Big Sky Conference Championship.

UND cross country coach Dick Clay wanted to make sure his runners competed, but did not overextend themselves before the biggest race of the year.

“We wanted to be a little bit more controlled, and make sure we still had something left,” Clay said. “We wanted to make everyone feet like they had a good race, but at the same time didn’t go all out.”

With Clay and the runners satisfied with the results of the Ron Pynn Classic, the teams will look forward to the Big Sky Championship and finishing off the season strong.

Alex Stadnik is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. He can be reached at [email protected].