SAUK RAPIDS, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul cross country had its final race on Friday before hosting the NSIC Championships in two weeks, competing at St. Cloud State's Bob Waxlax Invitational at Wapicada Golf Course.

The meet consisted of a women's 6k race and a men's 8k and named in honor of Bob Waxlax, who was a former head coach of the cross country and track and field programs at St. Cloud State.  Waxlax also served as a professor during his tenure at St. Cloud State. 

The course is considered a fast and flat course and was the final tune-up for the six men's and seven women's Northern Sun programs before the NSIC Championships on October 24, hosted by Concordia-St. Paul at the Les Bolstad Golf Course in Falcon Heights, the site of the University of Minnesota's Roy Griak Invitational.

Minnesota Duluth repeated as team champion of the Waxlax Invite for the men and the women with Winona State's Seth Reel winning the men's race and Southwest Minnesota State's Hannah Palmeter winning the women's side.

Concordia's men made significant gains on SMSU since the teams last raced together at the Griak Invite, finishing just two points behind the Mustangs on the men's side while the women were 25 points behind Bemidji State. Each Golden Bear team finished in seventh place.

Golden Bear senior Maggie Marcus set a new team record on the Wapicada Golf Course while running a season-best 23:50.8 to finish in 29th, topping her former season-best by 2:04.1. All 11 Concordia runners, six women and five men set season best times in Friday's race.

GOLDEN BEAR NOTES
Women
29th Place – Maggie Marcus – 23:50.8 – Season Best Time bettering her time from the Roy Griak two weeks ago by 2 minutes 04.1 seconds.  – New Concordia Course Record for the Wapicada Golf Course.
53rd Place – Erin Spatenka -25:06.5 – Season Best Time bettering her time from the Roy Griak two weeks ago by 1 minutes 12.1 seconds.  She runs the 6th fastest time by a Concordia athlete on the Wapicada Golf Course.
54th Place – Ruth Lindberg – 25:07.1 – Personal Best Time bettering her time from the Roy Griak two weeks ago by two minutes 3.7 seconds.  She runs the 7th fastest time by a Concordia athlete on the Wapicada Golf Course.  She runs the 11th fastest race by a Concordia first year student in school history.
68th Place – Jordan Gray – 26:23.9 – Season Best Time.  Jordan runs the 10th fastest race of all time by a Concordia athlete on the Wapicada Golf Course.
71st Place –Courtney Ramsay – 27:19.7 – Personal Best Time bettering her time from the Roy Griak two weeks ago by 2 minutes 30.5 seconds.
72nd Place – Rachel Thaemert – 27:51.1 – Season Best Time bettering her time from the Roy Griak two weeks ago by 1 minute 45 seconds
 
Men
24th Place – Caleb Troe – 26:44.2 – New Personal Best time improving his time from the UW-Parkside by 46.5 seconds. Caleb runs the 3rd fastest race all time by a Concordia athlete on the Wapicada Golf Course.  He runs the 5th fastest race all time by a Concordia first year student for the 8K.
36th Place – Sam Anderson – 27:10.6 – New Personal Best time improving his time from this course last year by 11.6 seconds.  He improved his season best time set at UW-Parkside by improving by 1 minute 46.5 seconds.  He runs the 5th fastest race by a Concordia athlete at the Wapicada Golf Course.  Sam has now run the 5th, 6th, and 7th fastest races by a Concordia athlete at the Wapicada Golf Course.
56th Place – Tyler Karl – 28:16.5 – New Personal Best time improving his time from this course last year by 25.5 seconds.  He improved his season best time improving 35.5 seconds from his time run at UW-Parkside. He runs the 8th fastest race by a Concordia athlete at the Wapicada Golf Course.
63rd Place – Vincent Barr – 32:51.4 – New Personal Best time improving his time from the Roy Griak by an amazing 5 minutes 3.6 seconds.
64th Place – Bob Etheridge – 33:11.2 – New Season Best Time improving his time from the UW-Parkside by2 minutes 25.2 seconds.  In addition, he improved his time from the Roy Griak by a remarkable 5 minutes 8.6 seconds.  Bob set a new personal best time for this course by improving by 32.7 seconds from his race at the Wapicada Golf Course in 2013.