The leaves are falling and the temperatures are dropping rapidly. In the collegiate cross country realm that can only mean that the cross country championships are just around the corner. For four Menomonie High School graduates, that means four different cross country championships are on the docket.
Peter Cimino, a sophomore at UW-Stout Polytechnic, will compete in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Championship, Saturday, Oct. 31 at UW-Whitewater. Connor Norby, a senior at Winona State University, will compete in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) Saturday, Nov. 7 hosted by Augustana College in Sioux Falls, Iowa. Grant Burns, a sophomore at Taylor University in Upland, Ind., will compete in the Crossroad League Championship, Friday, Nov. 6, a meet his team will host. Luke Ray, a freshman at Grove City College in Grove City, Pa., will compete in the President’s Athletic Conference (PAC) Championship, Saturday, Oct. 31, in Youngstown, Ohio.
Cimino has run in three meets for the Blue Devils this season. He opened the season by finishing 49th (27-minutes, 20.4-seconds) at the Titan Inviational, Sept. 18. Cimino was 38th (27:03.3) at the Running of the Cows meet, Oct. 3, the course where the NCAA Division III Championship will be held. The sophomore ran his top 8-kilometer time of the year by finishing 108th (26:45.4) in the huge Interregional Invitational hosted by Augustana University, Oct. 17. Cimino will compete in his second collegiate conference championship. As a freshman, Cimino placed 90th with a career-best time of 26:41.6.
Norby made his first appearance of the season at the Winona State Invitational, Oct. 23, placing 71st (31:00.6)/ Norby is expected to make his third appearance in the NSIC conference meet. Last season, Norby placed 71st (27:42.0) and in 2024, he set a career-best 8K time, finishing 45th in a time of 25:34.4.
Both Burns and Ray are looking towards competing in their first collegiate conference championship meet.
Injury kept Burns out of the 2025 cross country season and part of the track season. This year, Burns has competed in four meets for Taylor University, which is ranked 24th in the NAIA. Burns finished 114th (20:47.3) in a 6-kilomter run, Sept. 4, then set his collegiate-best 8K run by placing 151st (27:46.0) Sept. 25 at the Gans Creek Classic. He was 121st (28:31.6) at the Ray Bullock Invitatonal, Oct. 9. At the NAIA Great Lakes Challenge, Oct. 23, Burns finished 93rd in a near-collegiate-best time of 27:47.7.
Ray opened his collegiate career Sept. 4 with a 16th place finish in a 5-kilometer run (17:21.6) at the Westminster Fisher Invitational. He tasted 8K his next time out with an 88th place finish (26:52.1) Sept. 26 at the Lock Haven Cross Country Invitational. Ray finished 105th (28:19.5) Oct. 10 at the SUNY-Geneseo Mike Woods Invitational.
Menomonie Collegians is a regular feature of Menomonie News Net. The column is not limited to student-athletes, but may be a former Menomonie area student in a play, forensics, music or any type of collegiate competition. If you know of a Menomonie Collegian, please email [email protected].
The column “Menomonie Collegians” by Layne Pitt is licensed under a CC BY SA 4.0 International license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
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