Ripon College cross country is looking to build on success. The Red Hawks' women's program placed third at last season's Midwest Conference (MWC) Championships for the second consecutive year, staying near the top of the conference pack after 2022's title winning performance. This year's team will be led by a triumvirate of returning talent, with senior Jenny Cortes (Round Lake, Ill., Round Lake HS), junior Gabby Allard (Appleton, Wis., Kimberly HS), and sophomore Joley Berger (Dunbar, Wis., Pembine HS) looking to reach even greater heights.

Cortes, earning All-Conference and All-Region status last season, enters her senior year with the 8th best 5k time and 4th best 6k time in school history. Placing second individually at the 2024 MWC Championships and narrowly missing an NCAA Championship appearance, Cortes is ready for the coming year on the course, but most anticipating the team atmosphere. 

"I'm most excited to be back with my team," Cortes describes, "because I love watching everyone progress throughout the season and just creating fun new memories with everyone."

Allard is one of those teammates Cortes is excited to watch progress. After an All-Conference freshman season, Allard secured her second consecutive conference honor with an 11th place finish at the 2024 MWC Championships, running the ninth fastest 6k in school history.

"My goal this season is to continue to make bonds on the team that will last a lifetime," Allard says, looking to the year ahead. "Along with the social goals, I am working towards another year of All-Conference."

As the team continues to grow its roster, Berger, coming off a freshman season which also featured All-Conference honors and the 15th best 6k time in program history, is just as focused on her teammates and relationships as much as her race results. 

"As a team, I think focusing on carrying team culture from previous seasons over is the most important thing with so many incoming freshmen… I have been working very hard and hitting my highest mileage yet to make sure I am prepared."

While the women's team welcomes four new runners into the program, the men's team makes way for the biggest cross country recruit class in school history, with sixteen freshmen coming into the program. 

One of six returners for the Red Hawks, Jeremy Saloun (Portage, Wis., Portage HS) enters his senior season with momentum, posting an 8k PR of 26:30 at last year's Gene Davis Invitational in Appleton. Two spots outside of the All-Conference cut off at the MWC Championships, Saloun is poised to set a strong example for the young squad. 

"I want to earn my spot on the all-time top 20 performance list, because I came up just short of that last season," Saloun says of his goals this season. "I would also like to earn All-Conference honors."

Saloun is ready for leadership beyond setting on-course precedents.

"I'm really looking forward to stepping up as more of a leader on the team this season. We're going to be a very young team, so any way that I can help out the newer guys will go a long way in helping our team be more successful."

Both teams will have plenty of chances to show the work they've put in, and what the new runners can do, with this season's schedule. 


 

Both programs will open their season at the Mustang Gallop on Aug 29, held at the Seminole Valley Cross Country Course. Held on flat terrain with a series of tight loops, the opening race follows a reduced mileage route, starting the season as in years' past with a shorter sprint. The Red Hawks will return to Seminole Valley at the end of the season for the MWC Championships, running the course's 6k route for the women's conference finale and the 8k route for the men. 

"I would say I'm most excited to race at Augustana," says Berger of the coming schedule. "We didn't race there last year and I am excited to see how our team will perform at such a competitive meet."

Last year's invitational at Augustana featured more than 35 teams, including six teams ranked nationally by the USTFCCCA Coaches' Poll at the time of running: #2 Colorado College, #3 U-Chicago, #10 Calvin, #12 DePauw, #14 WashU, and #25 Wartburg.

Held at Saukie Golf Course in Rock Island, Illinois, the short grass and even terrain should provide faster finishes for all competitors.

Two weeks after the conference championship, the Red Hawks will look to send runners to the NCAA Championships, attempting to qualify at the NCAA North Regional held in Eau Claire. The Red Hawks will get an early look at the course a month prior, with the teams competing at the Blugold invite. 

"I'm looking forward to Eau Claire," Allard says. "I've come short on my goals when competing there so I'm excited to have another chance earlier in the season to show improvement for myself."

The top 7-person teams from each of the NCAA's ten regional events will move on to run at the NCAA Championships, with an additional 22 teams selected with at-large bids by committee. The seven runners with the best results from each regional who did not qualify as a member of a team are also awarded bids to the final race. Last season, Cortes would come close to qualifying, finishing just five seconds behind the final individual qualifier in the North Regional.
 

With a mix of course designs, wind effects, and temperature variations, progress on the course often takes a non-linear approach. Despite the variety of finishes across the previous two seasons, Saloun and Cortes both saw average time deductions when looking at overall race results in the time frame. Saloun dropped 38 seconds off his finishing times for the 8k from 2023 to 2024, while Cortes reduced her 6k time by 16 seconds. 

Both runners faced their toughest route at the UW-Whitewater hosted Tom Hoffman Invitational, with Saloun and Cortes each recording finishes over a minute slower than their average times. On the other side, both would record personal bests during the two year stretch at Lawrence University's course, with Saloun running 51 seconds faster than his average, and Cortes claiming second place at the MWC Championships with a 22:25, more than a minute faster than her average time. 

"The Lawrence course is the best for me, as [it is for] everyone," Allard says of the venue. "It's called PR City for a reason. All of my course PRs were run there."

The team returns to the Lawrence course on Oct 11 for the annual Gene Davis Invite. 

Drew Hoffman enters his second season with the Red Hawks, coaching one All-Region and six All-Conference runners in 2024. 

"Since I have been given the opportunity to coach this program, I have truly believed that this is a special place. We are fortunate enough to have had the best class in school history come through and graduate last year, but that means it is time to look to the future of the program. I do not consider this so much a rebuild, but more of a reset... All of the incoming and present athletes are not just great runners, but also great people."

The team environment so valued by the runners remains a top focus of Hoffman's. 

"Every runner will go into each race confidently knowing that their teammates believe in them and want to help them succeed at the highest level. I care a lot about the athletes hearing from me as their coach that I believe they have the capacity to succeed, but I might care even more about them hearing it from each other. In the end, it is one's teammates who are the most impactful on the time we spend together, on the life that we live while at Ripon."

"The thing that will make the difference for us going forward will be openness to accountability, the athletes' commitment to one another. There's a sacrifice you make by being part of a team, where you make choices that are for the team instead of the self, and knowing that is the key to success. This is not a change that is made overnight, but in the small decisions that get made by each person… It makes a difference every day, and the idea of building one step at a time is what cross country is all about."

 

Ripon Cross Country opens the year on Aug 29 in Cedar Rapids, Ia., with results posted to riponredhawks.com. Follow the team's progress on social media @ripontrackxc on Instagram.