MILWAUKEE, Wis. (WLCSports.com) – Wisconsin Lutheran College is set to compete at the 2026 Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Men's and Women's Cross Country Championships on Saturday, October 31, hosted at Settler's Hill Cross Country Course in Batavia, Illinois.
Saturday marks the third time Settler's Hill has hosted the conference meet, having previously served as the championship venue in 2022 and 2024. The women's 6K championship race gets underway at 11 a.m., followed by the men's 8K championship race at 12 p.m. Built on a recovered landfill, the dedicated cross country facility features an 80-meter-wide starting line, 10-meter-wide running paths, and a 250-meter finishing straightaway.
The Warriors' men's squad enters Saturday aiming for the top spot after securing runner-up team finishes in each of the last four NACC Championships. Leading the charge is senior
Arnold Rupnow (Watertown, Wis.), who collected All-NACC honors a year ago with a fifth-place individual finish at the conference meet.
Rupnow paces WLC's top five 8K performers this season, having posted a team-best time of 26:15.8 at the St. Olaf Invitational. He is joined by sophomore
Caleb Schreiber (Mukwonago, Wis.) (26:28.4,
Steve Travis Invitational), senior
Noah Micheel (Mequon, Wis.) (27:32.6,
Steve Travis Invitational), freshman
Zachary Haleem (Kenosha, Wis.) (27:38.6,
Steve Travis Invitational), and freshman
Sean Miller (Waukesha, Wis.) (27:53.9, Gene Davis Invitational).
On the women's side, Wisconsin Lutheran enters the weekend following consecutive fifth-place team showings at the NACC Championships.
Sophomore
Maddie Metz (Chino Valley, Ariz.) leads the Warriors' top five 6K performers on the season after clocking a team-leading 24:11.4 at the Wisconsin Private College Championships. Rounding out WLC's top five performers heading into the conference meet are junior
Kirstin Neuwirth (New Berlin, Wis.) (24:21.2,
Steve Travis Invitational), sophomore
Calliope Horn (San Diego, Calif.) (24:52.1, Gene Davis Invitational), freshman
Madisen Job (Little Chute, Wis.) (25:08.7,
Steve Travis Invitational), and freshman
Annalise Kuehn (Wauwatosa, Wis.) (25:18.5, Gene Davis Invitational).
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