For the first time this season, it was not redshirt junior Danielle Tauro who crossed the line first for the No. 17 Michigan women's cross country team.

Instead, it was sophomore Jill Smith.

The Wolverines took 22nd place at the NCAA Championship on Monday at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course in Terre Haute, Ind., finishing with a score of 476.

Smith finished her first NCAA meet in 47th place with a time of 20:57.2, missing All-American honors by just four seconds. This is the first time in seven years that the Wolverines didn't claim an individual All-American honor at the NCAA meet.

“We were disappointed with today,” Michigan coach Mike McGuire said Monday. “We started the season ranked 27th and worked our way up the ladder, so to take a couple steps back down the rungs is disappointing.”

Villanova’s Sheila Reid took top honors, helping the Wildcats earn their second consecutive cross country national championship.

“Jill was at the meet last year, but wasn’t able to run because she was ill,” McGuire said. “So for her first meet, that was pretty darn good. She stepped up, so that added something positive.”

The 6,000-meter event started off slow, with a 5:20 initial mile, due to windy conditions on the raceway.

Through the 5,000-meter mark, the front pack stayed congested, making it difficult for runners to make big moves.

Smith stayed among the top-50 for most of the race, registering a 10:17 split time at the 3,000-meter mark.

“It was a one-and-done kind of thing,” Smith said of her final race of the season. “I just really wanted to end my season on a good note, not a bad one. I just had that going through my head the whole time.”

Michigan didn't place any other runners in the top 100, but did finish four more in scoring position.

Sophomore Rebecca Addison was the second Wolverine to cross the line, finishing in 117th place with a time of 21:29.7. Tauro finished 10 seconds later in 139th place with a time of 21:39.9.

“We know what we need to do next year,” McGuire said. “Today was better than last year, but not quite where we wanted it. If we had gone out there closer to where we’ve been all year, we would have at least finished where we were ranked, if not higher.”

McGuire will now evaluate this season and look to improve next year, as all seven of the team’s top 6,000-meter runners will be returning.

“We have to move forward,” McGuire said. “We now have some runners who gained some experience in this setting and they’ll just have to be more in control when we come back next year. It can be an intimidating venue if you let it, and we have a couple people who are definitely capable of doing better.”