The No. 18 Michigan women’s cross country team headed to Terre Haute, Ind. this past weekend to test their luck against some of the top teams in the country at the NCAA Pre-Nationals.
Going in, Michigan was ranked eighth in the Blue Division, which also included No. 1 Brigham Young and No. 4 Colorado as the top two teams. But the Wolverines didn’t have enough gas in their tank to beat these national powers, finishing 10th-place overall out of a 38-team field.
“We were a little disappointed,” Michigan coach Mike McGuire said. “We definitely fell short. We’re going to move down, nationally and regionally.”
Rebecca Walter had a strong stride, leading the Wolverines with a 35th-place finish and a personal-best time of 21:22. The freshman has shown steady improvement since the beginning of the season and has turned into one of the most consistent runners on the team.
Junior Lindsey Gallo was also impressive, finishing 52nd out of 259 runners with a personal-best time of 21:39.
Other top performers for Michigan were senior Jane Martineau (72nd-place, 21:51), junior Andrea Parker (90th-place, 21:59) and senior captain Jeanne Spink (97th-place, 22:06).
“We had a great race from Rebecca Walter and Jeanne Spink, but we were a little bit below par,” McGuire said.
McGuire was upset with the lack of consistency from his top runners, who have been impressive throughout the season. The Wolverines can only hope to learn from this race and improve before they compete in the Big Ten Championships in West Lafayette on Nov. 3.
“This was our only sub-standard meet up to this point,” McGuire said. “I hope it wakes them up. People can’t be selective, they have to step up.”
Next up for the Wolverines is the EMU Classic in Ypsilanti this Friday. Those who will not compete at the Big Ten Championships will run on Friday.