COLFAX, Wis. – A lot changed in the 72 hours leading up to the 2025 Blugold Invitational, hosted by the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire, at Whitetail Golf Course in Colfax, Wisconsin.  Set as a Friday evening "twilight," the 2025 edition also served as the preview for the NCAA North Regional on November 15^th.  But forecasts threatened cancellation with extreme warm temperatures expected Friday evening.

On Tuesday, Blugold organizers moved the twilight to a 9:30 a.m. "sunrise" start to avoid extreme heat.

With 40 of the original 45 teams committed to the new timeline, teams converged on Colfax early Friday morning, with the varsity men kicking it off over 8 kilometers at 9:30 a.m. 

But even by the Men's start time, the mercury was an unseasonable 70 degrees, and temps climbed quickly.  By the time the women lined up for the 6k, the temp pushed into the high 70s with high humidity, making self-cooling a major challenge as the humidity doesn't allow the skin to evaporate sweat.

Regan Niemi (Bemidji, MN/Bemidji HS) managed the heat well though, delivering her finest cross country performance, finishing 11^th in a personal best 6k time of 22:48.7.

Carleton's freshman phenom, Claire Vukovics won in a time of 21:45.7, 9.1 seconds clear of UW Stevens Point's own freshman star, Faith Wehrman (21:54.8). St. Olaf's senior veteran, Lauren Walda was third in 21:59.5. 

Niemi and Maj-Lis Helmer (Duluth, MN/Duluth East HS) ran together for much of the race hanging in the top 25 with two kilometers remaining. 

Niemi found another gear from there to the finish, passing eight runners, moving from 17^th to 11^th over the final two kilometers.  Helmer fell hostage to the heat for a second straight race, but was unable to get to the finish this time, abandoning around the 5km mark with severe overheating symptoms.  While concerning, Helmer made a full recovery after the race.

Stepping up, Abby Wood (Circle Pines, MN/Centennial HS) finished second on the day for the Saints in 76^th place with a new PR by just 0.9 seconds (23:04.0).  Kaia Osmundson (Chisago Lakes, MN/Chisago Lakes HS) was third across the line for the Saints in 131^st place in 24:39.9.  Della Bettendorf (Proctor, MN/Proctor HS) finished 164^th in 25:02.5, and Grace McCormick (Duluth, MN/Denfeld HS) scored for the Saints for the first time this season in 168^th place (25;06.2) to round out the scoring for the Saints.

Wisconsin La Crosse won with 117 points, with hosts UW Eau Claire second with 132, fifteen points ahead of Minnesota Duluth in 3^rd with 147.  The Saints scored 488 points to finish 20^th of 36 teams, and 6^th of 9 MIAC teams on hand.

Saints head coach, Chad Salmela, was both upbeat and philosophical about the day.  "First, you have to tip your hat to Regan, coming from the icebox of Bemidji, having the best race of her life on a day like today," said Salmela.  "But you can only effect so much for everyone else." 

Acknowledging that everyone ran in the same conditions, Salmela felt his team struggled a little more with the heat.

"It's just regularly 10 or more degrees warmer than Duluth this time of year everywhere south of us, which is where most teams we compete against are.  So when it's just hot enough to be a little too hot for us, we really melt by comparison.  I can count the number of workouts we've done in that kind of heat on less than a finger." 

He feels the trade off is fair though.  "So, we have to lick our wounds on an 80-degree October day?  That's sport."  He thinks it's a reasonable trade-of surrounding environments. 

"I feel just fine about 22 degrees, wind, and snow.  We'll be ready for that.  When's the last time we ran NCAAs in late November in 80-degree heat?  Today was just what it was.  We just don't need to get in our heads about a situation over which we had very little control."

The Saints return to action October 18^th at the Interregional Invitational in Rock, Island, Il, hosted by Augustana College.