Charlottesville, Va. – The Western Carolina cross country team wrapped up its 2025 season at the NCAA Southeast Regional on Friday. WCU's second time running on the Panorama Farms course this season saw the Catamount women's team earn a 30th-place finish, with all six finishing runners earning a spot on the school's all-time 6K list.
Additionally, Matthias Peterson and Jaleb Saunders finished in the top 175 individually for the men, with the freshmen recording their first career collegiate 10Ks.
The WCU women's team solidly took the spotlight for the second consecutive meet, building off their impressive performance at the SoCon Championships with a strong run in Virginia. All six Catamount finishers ran their way to the WCU all-time performance list in the 6K with personal records across the board. Four of those finishers shattered their previous personal benchmarks by over a full minute, with Katherine Hopkins (22:09.2) and Peyton Skoglund (22:28.5) recording the first sub-22:30 finishes since the 2022 season.
"I was excited for the finish of cross country today. The women's team closed with a bang this year, highlighted by the conference finish along with today's finish," said head coach Jesse Norman following the Catamount women's first team finish since 2022. "We got all six runners to finish on the all-time list, which is pretty impressive. We're excited to build off this for the future."
Braelyn Shae-Wahy (23:01.0) nearly posted a sub-23:00 finish but joined Hopkins (137th) and Skoglund (154th) as a top 200 finisher, claiming 187th. Amaya Hicks (202nd; 23:19.7) and Madeline Hladik (204th; 23:24.2) rounded out WCU's scoring, five for a team point total of 884, with Riley McKinney (221st; 23:47.7) finishing sixth on the team.
On the men's side, Jaleb Saunders and Matthias Peterson finished back-to-back in the 10K, taking 174th and 175th, respectively. The two finished within two seconds of each other, with Saunders posting a 33.27.9 and Peterson finishing in 33:29.4. The two rank 5th and 6th on WCU's all-time freshman 10K list.
The Catamount cross country team will enjoy a few weeks of rest before trading the trails for the track as the 2025-26 indoor track and field season begins in December. The full WCU schedule for both the indoor and outdoor seasons will be announced at a later date.
