AKRON, Ohio – The Western Michigan cross country team earned its best finish since 2003 by placing fourth at the Mid-American Conference Championships held in Akron, Ohio Saturday afternoon. The Broncos finished with 118 team points while Eastern Michigan won with 55, Bowling Green placed second with 72 and Central Michigan took third with 73.
“We are definitely moving in the right direction after placing sixth last year and ninth two years ago,” Head coach Kelly Lycan said. “We basically brought the same group we did last year with the exception of Sarah Anderson and that is an indication that we are improving and getting better. A lot of that is credit to Coach Rebekah Smeltzer, she has done a great job with the girls.”
Individually, sophomore Maria McDaniel led the way placing third with a time of 20:45.4 to earn First Team All-MAC honors for the second straight year after placing second at last year's Championships. McDaniel is the only Bronco to garner two First-Team All-MAC awards since Stacey Kilburn, who earned four First-Team All-MAC awards from 1989-1993.
Anderson, the freshman, placed 20th (22:00.0), sophomore Claire Gilbert 26th with a new 6k personal record time of 22:07.5, sophomore Hanne Christensen 29th (22:09.4) and junior Daya Wagh 41st (22:29.1) to round out WMU's top-five. Junior Amy Littlefield 82nd (23:49.7), freshman Makenzie Evers 86th (23:54.1) and senior Ann Marie Arseneau 89th (24:06.3). Junior Alsu Bogdanova of Eastern Michigan won the race with a time of 20:39.3 edging out Kelsey Hildreth of Northern Illinois by 3.5 seconds and McDaniel by 5.1 seconds in a close finish.
The Broncos have a week off before heading to Madison, Wis. on Friday, Nov. 13 for the NCAA Great Lakes Regional Championships.
