The UW-Whitewater’s women’s cross country team has had success throughout the season. The Warhawks placed first at the North Central Invitational and the Tom Hoffman Invitational. They also placed second at the Warhawk Open and 10th at the NCAA DIII Pre Nationals. UW-Whitewater competed at the WIAC Championships last weekend and placed fourth out of eight teams. Leading the way most of the year was junior Payton Scoggin.

Scoggin has had a very successful year. She placed first at the Tom Hoffman Invitational (23 minutes 18.7 seconds), 41st at the NCAA DIII Pre Nationals (22:26.86), 44th at the Augustana Interregional Invitational (22:26.3), and 16th at the WIAC Championships with a new PR at a time of 22:10.8.

What are your overall thoughts on last weekend’s meet in the WIAC Championships?

I think our team really worked together very well and all came together and put up a great performance. It was one of the best in program history, which is really nice. And it was great seeing all the PRs and all the hard work all my teammates have put in to finally pay off. It was just great seeing them all there.

What stood out to you the most in the championships?

I would say, just like overall, all the PRs and just like everyone’s mood going in, you could just tell everyone was so happy to be there. And I think we all just fed off the energy, as well as, like all the other teams to everyone. They’re just so supportive of one another, which is great.

A lot of good things overall this weekend. What are some improvements that you can make going into the next meet?

I would say just stay with our plan. Just keep the progress going. We put in all the work and just stay strong, keep our bodies healthy, and just work with one another and really run together at regionals coming up. And I feel we’ll do the best if we just all stay together and stay strong.

With regionals coming up, how are you and the team preparing?

We’re just keeping our progress going, not doing too much more, just keeping it steady and just gonna keep putting in some workouts kind of easier than they have been in the past, and just keep maintaining everything that we’ve worked hard for so far this season.

You guys have had a great season so far. Can you talk more about this season and recap a little bit about this season?

We got a lot of new people this year, which is really nice to have, and lots of new transfers and freshmen as well. It was nice to get a lot more talent, and I feel like we’ve had a lot more bigger groups. We run together in practice, in groups and workouts. It’s nice to have everyone has someone around them to run with, which is really nice. And a lot of the teams, a lot of us, have been going through injuries and stuff, but we’ve all powered through and everyone’s looking a lot better, and it’s getting to the peak, which is really nice. It’s just nice to see everyone come together and work hard and encourage one another throughout this season. It was great to have lots of girls, which was nice.

The women’s cross country team travels to the Bill Huyck Course in Northfield, Minnesota, as they will start their postseason as their next meet is the NCAA DIII North Regional.