Women's Cross Country | October 19, 2019

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – The Western Michigan cross country team is one step closer to the Mid-American Conference Championships after wrapping up the Under Armour Pre-Nationals on Saturday afternoon at LaVern Gibson Championship Course at Indiana State University.

The Broncos finished in 17th place in the White Race in a field of 26. Senior Brittney Hall took 39th overall with a time of 22:09.3 as WMU's top finisher on the day. Classmate Juliane Sormain finished just eight spots behind her with a time of 22:20.4.

"We finished pretty strong in terms of the back-half of the race," said assistant coach Tony Filipek. "Our two through seven runners were passing people from the first split on. But we are still in that situation where we need to flap a switch going into the MAC and get those extra 10 seconds that we need."

WMU's third, fourth and fifth runners were all separated by a total of 8.3 seconds and 12 total places. Freshman Ashley Shipps finished in 93rd after running a 23:04.9. She was followed by junior Courtney Allen in 99th at 23:09.8, while sophomore Paisley Sipes finished in 105th place with a time of 23:13.2. Annalise James finished with a time of 23:30.7 and junior Rebecca McNamee ran a time of 23:44.1 to round out the seven competitors.

"They all left with a great attitude and I thought we competed well," added Filipek. "There is two weeks until the MAC Championship and it's time to just flip that switch to get those extra 5-10 seconds and those extra points."