CEDARVILLE, OH – The University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) women's cross country team placed 24th in Saturday's NCAA Division II Midwest Regional.
UIS put together a team score of 719 and improved last year's 26th-place finish at regionals.
"The team ran tough and beat our meet goal with our finish." UIS coach Mike DeWitt said. "We were not running full strength and the ladies did a good job of fitting into our prerace goal places. Overall, we've made good improvements on the season."
Krissy Finley lead the Prairie Stars with a 6K time of 24 minutes, 8.2 seconds to finish 104th. The senior from Rochester, IL wrapped up her collegiate cross country career after transferring to UIS when the cross country program was established in 2015.
Olivia Rohr (25:25.2) clocked a season personal record and captured 155th.
Libby Price (25:27.5) earned 156th,
Lexi Yoggerst (25:36.1) recorded a 161st-place finish,
Kelsey Cleary (26:07.5) took 172nd,
Gloria Esarco (26:27.2) turned in 177th and
Savannah Brannan (26:40.5) finished 181st.
Grand Valley State, which is ranked. No. 2 in the latest United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association NCAA Division II poll, captured first with a team score of 46. Eighth-ranked Hillsdale College (81) claimed second and No. 10 Walsh University (105) earned third. Grand Valley State, Hillsdale and Walsh each received an automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championship on Nov. 18 at Evansville, IN.
Northern Michigan University (126), which is tied for 17
th in the national poll, took fourth, No. 23 University of Southern Indiana (137) placed fifth and Malone University (155), which is tied for 25th in the national poll, turned in sixth, finishing ahead of Bellarmine University (231), Michigan Tech University (237), Saginaw Valley University (273) and Missouri S&T (290), which rounded out the top 10 teams in the 28-team field.
The top three teams in each region automatically qualify for the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championship and eight at-large teams will also be selected.
Walsh's Sarah Berger crossed the finish line first, clocking a time of 21:19.3. Malone's Jade Smith, Northern Michigan's Kameron Burmeister and Southern Indiana's Hope Jones have all secured bids to the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championship.
The Prairie Stars are expected to return 10 runners next season and look to add to their success.
