KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Western Michigan cross country season heads to Bowling Green State University to wrap up the 2020 season with the Mid-American Conference Championship meet on Saturday at 2 p.m.
The race is third and final of the COVID-19-shortened season and will be just the second 6k for the Broncos. In a normal season, the MAC Championship would be the fifth or sixth meet for WMU. Western Michigan has had to adjust its training and its strategy heading into Saturday.
"Although the training has been affected by the pandemic, we are looking forward to each opportunity in front of us," said assistant coach Anthony Filipek, who coaches WMU's distance crew. "We are looking at this meet as an opportunity to gain conference mete experience while continuing our season improvements. With everyone returning next year, along with a strong recruiting class of 2021, this experience will be indispensable moving forward."
"The meet is a perfect scenario where our women can focus on the small things like maintain an even race pace throughout 6k, working on self-discipline, and staying present the entire competition without as much pressure that resides in a typical year."
The seven runners that the Broncos will field are
Rebecca McNamee,
Annalise James,
Brooke Soper,
Courtney Allen,
Charlotte Ramser,
Paisley Sipes, and
Ashley Shipps. The race should be familiar to the group, who competed there back on Nov 7. for the Falcon Invitational.
"Racing at Bowling Green two weeks ago gave us a baseline to improve upon, while also specific experiences to visualize our execution of our race goals," added Filipek. "We know the grade of the only hill on the course, where the race splits are, and how long the last straight away is to the finish. These course details will help our confidence and build automaticity into each stride for an efficient performance for each Bronco that toes the line. Our staff and student athletes are excited and grateful."
McNamee paced the Broncos at the Falcon Invitational, as well as the season-opener at Central Michigan. The Marquette, Mich., native has turned in a new personal-best time in each of her races this season. She set a new 5k mark at the Jeff Drenth Memorial, hosted by CMU, with a time of 18:00.1 to take fifth place. At BGSU she ran a 6k time of 22:22.1 to take 12th overall.
