YPSILANTI — Nineteen shoes and one pink-and-white argyle sock crossed the finish line at the Michigan Intercollegiate Meet.

Michigan junior Katie Williams likes to dress in style, but she didn’t plan on showcasing her sock during her 5,000-meter race Saturday at the Bowen Field House. When her shoe came untied early in the race, Williams kept running with it, gripped the track as well as she could. But with two laps to go, Williams decided her loose shoe was a hindrance instead of a help. She kicked it to the inside of the track.

“I like to be in style when I’m racing,” Williams said. “I just really like argyle in general. It’s not like I thought, 'My shoes might come off, so I better have good-looking socks on.' "

Williams and two teammates, sophomore Kaitlyn Peale and freshman Mary Grace Pellegrini, led the 5,000-meter race almost to the end. The trio had decided before the race to use it as practice, and take turns setting the pace for each other until the 4,000 meter mark, when the three would break apart and finish the race at their individual paces.

“We try to compete against each other because, sometimes, there is nobody else out there,” Michigan coach James Henry said.

While Williams kicked off her shoe in hopes of getting a better grip on the track, the Wolverines didn’t have any trouble getting a comfortable hold on first place.

Michigan dominated its first scoring meet in three weeks, winning the two-day competition with 216.5 points. Western Michigan was the Wolverines’ closest competitor with 122.5 points.

Senior co-captain Geena Gall, typically an 800-meter runner, dominated in the mile. She shot ahead of the competition seconds after the race began, increased her lead as the race went and finished with an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 4:41.59.

“I knew I had to get out fast,” Gall, who won by more than 20 seconds, said. “I knew I had to lead from the gun to the finish. I just shot out there because I didn’t want to get caught with any other girls or get boxed in at all.”

By the time the rest of the field came in, the athletes keeling over to catch their breath, Gall had already recovered from the run and walked away from the track.

Co-captain Bettie Wade had an impressive performance Friday in the pentathlon, blowing out the field and scoring 4,195 points. Second-place finisher Breanna Peabody of Oakland scored 3340 points.

“Our goal was to come out of [the meet] unscathed,” Henry said. “To come out of it healthy, and if in the end we can get some improvements then that’s what we want. I think that we accomplished all of the above.”

The Wolverines lost nothing but a shoe this weekend — and won a whole lot more.
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