On Friday, with the lineup for the Big Ten Championships set, the Michigan women’s cross country team showed what a strong future it has.

The Wolverines let some of their younger runners compete at the Eastern Michigan Fall Classic — a non-scoring meet — while their top nine runners sat out.

Redshirt sophomore Chloe Prince — Michigan’s top finisher at 18:33 — placed 11th overall in the 5,000-meter race. Redshirt sophomore Meg Bellino (24th) and redshirt freshman Erica Crane (25th) were the other Wolverines in the top 25.

Michigan also had several girls run unattached, which means they participated but didn't run for Michigan. Most notable was sophomore Alex Leptich, who finished second overall with a time of 17:56, setting a personal best on the course.

For most of the Wolverines who ran, it was their second race in a Michigan uniform and their last race of the season.

“It was their equivalent of the Big Ten meet this weekend,” said Michigan coach Mike McGuire. “I think we did a pretty nice job with some of them without the luxury of many races this fall. These kids are used to running 10 or 12 races by now in their high school season, and for us they’ve run just two. I thought they did a nice job.”

The Wolverines had most of the season to prepare for the race and put in some great work during the season to get ready.

“This season was just more about working hard everyday, and not to take any runs lightly, even the recovery days,” Bellino said. “If we were supposed to go and run four to six miles, we made sure it was a quality four to six miles.

“This was our chance to run our best times and show everyone what we’ve been working for.”

September 2 was the last time the Michigan runners who competed Friday ran, which happened to be the first meet of the season. The Wolverines hosted the Michigan Open on the same course, so Friday’s race was a chance to improve upon their times from the beginning of the season.

“We wanted to be better than we were when we ran that course on September 2nd, and we were,” McGuire said. “We had better conditions as far as the temperature, but we hit a pretty sizeable patch of the course that was very muddy along the river, and it made navigating it a little bit slower. They did a nice job.”

The rest of the Wolverines’ regulars were at the meet to cheer on their teammates but did not run. Their focus is on next Sunday’s race in Champaign — the Big Ten Championship.

Nine Wolverines will compete for the Big Ten title as Michigan heads into tournament time.

“We’ve got two workouts, basically a workout and a half left,” McGuire said. “We’re planting the seed on how we want to attack this race.”

McGuire said the team is aware that Michigan State is the favorite to win the Big Ten title, but they are ready to compete anyway. He said the Wolverines, Iowa, and Minnesota are three teams who could possibly “dethrone” the Spartans.

“We think we’re capable, (but) we haven’t put it together across the board that up to this point would garner us a Big Ten title,” McGuire said. “But we also have nine days of preparation of physical, and in particular, mental preparation. Then we’ve just gotta go out and execute on game day. We want it, but so do two or three other accomplished programs.”

Michigan will keep the ultimate goal in mind as they train in the coming week for next Sunday’s race.

As for the rest of the tournament season?

“We’re not even thinking about NCAA's right now,” McGuire said. “We’re thinking about the Big Ten meet.

“The ladies’ focus is on next Sunday.”