The University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) women's cross country team secured 19th place with a team score of 527 during Saturday's NCAA Division II Midwest Regional Championships at Hillsdale, Mich.
UIS put together the program's best-ever finish at the regional championships. The Prairie Stars were looking to make a larger jump upon last year's program-best finish of 24th place.
"The season didn't end the way we wanted," UIS head coach
Scott Slade said. "We put a lot of emphasis on the conference meet and I think we had a letdown after that."
"This was definitely not the outcome we were looking for," UIS assistant coach
Tyler Pence added. "We needed to be a little more aggressive early on and put ourselves in better position. We are a young team that is still learning the tactics that go into championship racing. As always, is was a great learning experience."
Taryn Christy earned 32nd with a 6K time of 22 minutes, 44.5 seconds. The Geneva native locked up the best individual finish at regionals in program history. Christy's time files in as the third-fastest 6K time in program history and the third-fastest time by a UIS freshman.
Gloria Esarco came in 102nd (24:28.2) while clocking the sixth-fastest time in program history by a UIS sophomore.
Alexa Thomsen captured 119th (24:51.1) and
Savannah Brannan took 128th (24:57.1).
Morgan Suttles and
Libby Price posted times of 25:24.4, claiming 146th and 147th, respectively. The margin of separation between Suttles and Price was less than one-tenth of a second, the degree of accuracy used during Saturday's meet.
Lexi Yoggerst turned in 159th (25:50.2) as well as the 10th-fastest time by a UIS senior.
"Overall, it was a good season," Slade acknowledged. "This team has come a long way this year and I am proud of them."
Grand Valley State University, ranked No. 3 in the latest United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) NCAA Division II poll, cruised to first in the team standings with 26 points. Hillsdale College came in second with 104 points, finishing ahead of No. 20 Michigan Technological University (116), No. 14 Walsh University (117), Saginaw Valley State University (196), Wayne State University (203), the University of Indianapolis (212), Cedarville University (217), Malone University (305) and Ferris State University (314), which rounds out the top 10 teams in the 29-team field. Hillsdale and Cedarville are each receiving votes, nationally.
UIS beat out Ashland University for 19th in a 3-2 head-to-head tiebreaker. The Prairie Stars finished with the fastest No. 1, No. 3 and No. 5 runners while Ashland came away with the fastest No. 2 and No. 4 runners.
Grand Valley State locked up the top two spots in the individual standings. Sarah Berger clocked a 6K time of 21:06.0 to top the 192-individual field. Gina Patterson secured second with a 6K time of 21:20.6.
The NCAA Division II Championships is scheduled for Dec. 1 in Pittsburgh. The top three teams in each regional automatically qualify for nationals, accounting for 24 of the 32 teams. The final eight at-large teams will be selected by the NCAA Selection Committee with no regional restrictions. The top five individuals not on one of the 32 qualifying teams will qualify for nationals as individuals.
Grand Valley State, Hillsdale and Michigan Tech have each punched its tickets to nationals. Bellarmine University's Karly Gawarecki, Ferris State's Kathryn Etelamacki, Walsh's Brianna Coy, Saginaw Valley State's Allison Dorr and Indianapolis's Mickayla Wenzel have each qualified for nationals regardless of the at-large teams selected for nationals.
The top 25 individuals at the regional meet each collected USTFCCCA All-Midwest Region honors.
UIS graduates Yoggerst. The senior from Riverton holds the program's sixth-fastest 4K time, the sixth-fastest 6K time by a UIS junior and the eighth-fastest 6K time by a UIS senior.
UIS expects to return 12-of-13 (92.3 percent) runners for the 2019 season.
