KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Western Michigan cross country team is looking to carry the momentum from its highest finish in the Mid-American Conference Championships since 2003 to the NCAA Great Lakes Regional Championships this weekend. The race will take place on Friday, Nov. 13 at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course in Madison, Wis. where the University of Wisconsin will be the host.
The race features 32 teams, including four teams that are currently ranked or receiving votes in the USTFCCCA NCAA Division One Coaches Poll that was distributed Nov. 3. Those teams are Michigan (7th), Notre Dame (15th), Michigan State (18th) and Wisconsin (RV). WMU is currently ranked 11th in the Great Lakes Regional poll after moving up from 13th a week ago.
Head coach Kelly Lycan on what the team needs to do: “It's a challenging course but it's not the hardest we've seen and definitely not the easiest,” Lycan said. “One thing we could do better is to just be a bit more aggressive in the first part of the race and get ourselves in a better position in the beginning.”
Assistant coach Rebekah Smeltzer on preparing for the race: “We tell them every single race to race the best of your ability that day,” Assistant coach Smelter said. “We don't try to do anything new in terms of daily prep (for the Regional meet) but I would say we encourage them to get out of their comfort zone of single race.”
Senior Daya Wagh on preparing for the race: “A key aspect that we have been focusing on in practice to prepare ourselves for Regionals is trust,” Wagh said. “We have had trust all this season, especially in our training, and now it's just strengthening that even more and trusting that we can all race together and for each other because in the end you are not just racing for yourself but for your team.”
The Broncos last raced at the MAC Championships where they finished fourth as a team while sophomore sensation Maria McDaniel finished in third place individually. Freshman Sarah Anderson took 20th (22:00.0), sophomore Claire Gilbert 26th with a new personal record time of 22:07.5, sophomore Hanne Christensen 29th (22:09.4) and Wagh 41st to round out WMU's top-five finishers.
At last season's Regional Championships, the Broncos finished in 15th place out of 30 teams giving them their highest finish since 2010. McDaniel led the way finishing 13th overall out of 219 runners to become the third WMU runner to earn All-Region and set a new record for the highest finish by a Western Michigan runner at the event. . The Broncos bring back four of the five runners that finished in their top five from a year ago in McDaniel, Ann Marie Arseneau, Christensen and Wagh.
At the Regional Championships, the top-two finishing team advance to the NCAA Championships while teams can earn an at-large bid. The top-four individual runners that are not a part of qualifying teams will also earn a spot in the NCAA Championships.
Live results can be found here: http://www.harriersolutions.com/xclive/
Follow us on Twitter @WesternMichTFXC for updates as well.
