Hamline’s men’s and women’s cross country celebrated the 40-year anniversary of the Pipers first MIAC Championship before the gun sounded at the start of this year’s MIAC Championship race.

In 1973, the Pipers cross country team won its first MIAC Championship. Paul Schmaedeke, head coach of the Pipers, was on that team as an athlete.

Co-head coach Adam Frye said every year before the MIAC Championship races they have a tent and grill before the meet with alumni and family. This year with the anniversary celebration, their alumni meet was even bigger than before.

The team’s goal for the meet was to improve from last year’s finish. The team wasn’t too concerned about how they finished at prior meets this season because they used that as part of their training cycle.

Maria Theisen, fifth-year senior captain of the women’s team, said their training is set so they can peak once they get to the MIAC Championship meet.

“We’ve been steadily improving but I think our best improvements [have] yet to come,” Theisen said.

Schmaedeke was content with the team’s performance at the UW-Lacrosse meet earlier this month, which is where he realized the potential his squad had.

“There’s no doubt with our women that we have not had our best meet yet,” he said. “We feel we can be significantly better than what we were at Lacrosse, which was a decent day for us.”

Frye said the conference meet was the first one that really counts because it marks the beginning of their championship season.

Theisen felt good about the women’s chances of improving their mark from last year, since they were a veteran team.

“I think we have one of the most talented groups that we’ve had in a while, just in terms of our ability to work together in races,” she said. “The fact that we have seven out of 11 being seniors, I think, plays a huge role not only in racing but just leadership at practice; if you’re good leaders at practice then you’re going to be good leaders out on the course.”

Last Saturday, the team finished in sixth place, beating their previous conference standing at seven. The team’s top three finishers placed in the top 25: senior Hannah Toedter finished at 14, followed by Theisen at 19, and senior Heather Hollinger at 22.

Frye was content with their performance and excited to see them improve. Their hard work all season long seemed to pay off, just as he said it would.

“If we prepare really well and execute our races really well [then] we’ll be really happy no matter what our [results show],” Frye said.

As for the men’s side, their goal for the meet corresponded to Schmaedeke’s philosophy.

“It comes down to what we tell our athletes,” he said. “We want to beat as many people as we can.”

Fifth-year senior Colin Rogers explained how the men have risen to the occasion in recent meets. During his first three years, the team won three consecutive MIAC championships.

“We are notoriously a team that shows up at [the] MIACs and surprise people,” he said. “My first three years here we won. I’m pretty sure people were predicting that we’d finish fourth or fifth… so we are constantly the underdog.”

He explained it would be tough to bounce back after falling short of a fourth consecutive championship last year. However, he does realize what they did achieve in those years was a huge milestone due to their very talented and experienced roster.

This year’s team is much different than previous years because of the lack of upperclassmen’s.

Last year, Rogers was kept off the cross country roster because of a stress fracture in his tibia. After participating in track last spring and training all summer, Rogers said he was 100 percent this season and only missed one meet. He said it was a good thing because he was able to stay another season for his year of eligibility, and help lead a team that would otherwise be missing important senior leadership.

“Just being a part of three MIAC Championships team’s and being a fifth place finisher himself, he just brings a lot of experience in and has been a good leader for us this fall,” Frye said.

Last Saturday, Rogers led the pack with a 14th place finish as the men’s team came in fifth at the meet.

After the Pipers Fall Finale on Friday, they will compete in the NCAA regionals on Nov. 16.

Rogers admitted last spring during his track race it kicked in that he would never race again as a Hamline Piper. However, in his final stretch as a cross country runner, he doesn’t think about it, and maintains a level head about the situation.

“I try to not make a big deal about it because when you get too emotional you get too excited,” Rogers said. “It’s still a five mile race, that’s a long way to get excited about something.”

On the other hand, Theisen can’t help but to think about it.

“It’s sort of my one last hurrah,” she said. “It’s a little bittersweet, you only get to do this so many times, but I love my team and it’s just really exciting to be able to do this with them. It’s one of those things where you have to enjoy it where you can. It’s mine and a lot of my teammates [final meets].”