MADISON, Wisc. -- After entering the NCAA Great Lakes Regional meet unranked, the Western Michigan cross country team was able to capture a 16th-place finish at the Zimmer Championship Course this afternoon. Throughout the race, WMU continued to elevate itself in the standings. The Broncos were in 20th after 2K and 18th after 4K.
"I'm very proud of how our team handled themselves today," head coach
Kevin Cataldo said. "We've had a good amount of adversity this year and even made last minute changes an hour before this race. We weren't far off of a top 15 finish and we beat an Akron team that was 5th in the conference and an Oakland team that won their conference championship. Danielle and Kayla had great races, as both ended their cross country careers with their highest regional finishes. My hat is off to
Lauren Sancrant. She was an alternate at the conference meet and at this meet. I made the decision to sub her in for this race and she had a 37 second personal best, finished 67 places higher than last year and was our third runner. Top to bottom, the team competed and I can't ask for anything more than that."
Western Michigan was led by two seniors in
Danielle Rinn and
Kayla Schiera. Both are coming off of All-MAC performances just a couple weeks ago. Rinn was able to grab 36th place with a time of 21:16.6, while Schiera crossed the finish line in 56th place with a time of 21:33.0.
The Broncos' third runner to cross the finish line was
Lauren Sancrant, who placed 119th with a 6K personal-best time of 22:30.3. Her previous best collegiate 6K time was 23:07.5. In terms of place, it was a big jump forward for the sophomore, who finished 186th at last year's regional meet.
Katelyn Spooner was next to cross the finish line for WMU, earning 142nd place. She had a time of 22:55.1. Rounding out the scoring lineup was
Brooke Soper, who posted a time of 23:04.8. That was good for 152nd place.
Larissa McGrath and
Delaney Knoll also competed for the Broncos. McGrath finished in a time of 23:15.2, while Knoll was able to collect a time of 23:36.3.
