Handler Places Seventh; Wolverines Finish Fourth at NCAA Regional

Friday, November 14

Madison, Wis.

12:00 PM

Michigan

NCAA Great Lakes Regional

Handler Places Seventh; Wolverines Finish Fourth at NCAA Regional

11/14/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country

Nov. 14, 2014

Brook Handler

• Notes & Quotes | Photo Gallery

Site: Madison, Wis. (Zimmer Championship Course)
Meet: NCAA Great Lakes Regional Championships (6,000 Meters)
U-M Team Finish: 4th Place of 32 Teams (137 points)
Top U-M Individual: Brook Handler, 7th (20:08)
Next U-M Event: Saturday, Nov. 22 -- at NCAA Championships (Terre Haute, Ind.), Noon

MADISON, Wis. -- The eighth-ranked University of Michigan women's cross country team ran to a fourth-place finish today (Friday, Nov. 14) at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional. The Wolverines were led by their co-captains, senior Brook Handler and fifth-year senior Megan Weschler, who both picked up All-Great Lakes Region honors. The 6,000-meter event was hosted by the University of Wisconsin at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course.

In a field of 219 athletes, Handler paced the Maize and Blue with her seventh-place finish, crossing the line at 20:08 to become the first of four Wolverines to best her previous 6K personal record. Handler's previous PR was set last two weekends ago at the Big Ten Championships (Nov. 2) in Iowa City, Iowa. Weschler picked up all-region honors with her 22nd-place finish, as she also bested her two-week-old 6K PR mark with a time of 20:40.

The race was controlled early by a pair of Michigan State runners -- Leah O'Connor and Rachele Schulist -- who both finished more than 10 seconds ahead of the field. Ultimately, MSU placed four in the top six to claim the team title with 28 points.

Finishing six seconds behind Weschler was sophomore/freshman Gina Sereno, who claimed 27th place in her first NCAA Great Lakes Regional action. In her first career championship-season race, senior/junior Laura Addison claimed 38th place with a time of 20:59.

Senior/junior Anna Pasternak rounded out Michigan's scoring five by crossing 43rd with a time of 21:03, followed by sophomore/freshman Jaimie Phelan, who made her postseason debut with Sereno at the conference meet, one second later in 45th place. Fifth-year senior Alexandra Leptich crossed the line 68th with a time of 21:36 as U-M's seventh finisher.

The 2014 season will conclude with the NCAA Championships next Saturday (Nov. 22) at Indiana State University's LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in Terre Haute, Ind. The Wolverines will learn their fate tomorrow (Saturday, Nov. 15), as the team must receive an at-large bid to advance to the national meet.

Team Standings (Top 10)

 1. Michigan State     28 2. Wisconsin          82 3. Toledo            133 4. MICHIGAN          137 5. Ohio State        155 6. Notre Dame        195 7. Indiana           198 8. Eastern Michigan  202 9. Butler            21010. Purdue            221

Top 10 Individual Finishers

 1. Leah O'Connor, Michigan State       19:45 2. Rachele Schulist, Michigan State    19:45 3. Sarah Disanza, Wisconsin            19:58 4. Molly Seidel, Notre Dame            19:59 5. Julia Otwell, Michigan State        20:06 6. Lindsay Clark, Michigan State       20:07 7. BROOK HANDLER, U-M                  20:08 8. Katie Borchers, Ohio State          20:11 9. Gabi Anzalone, Wisconsin            20:1410. Victoria Voronko, Eastern Michigan  20:16

Other Michigan Finishers

22. Megan Weschler     20:4027. Gina Sereno        20:4638. Laura Addison      20:5943. Anna Pasternak     21:0345. Jaimie Phelan      21:0468. Alexandra Leptich  21:36

N O T E S

• The top two teams at each of the nine regionals around the country earn automatic bids to the NCAA Championships (Nov. 22). Based on today's results, Michigan State and Wisconsin earned those bids in the Great Lakes Regional.

• Michigan will hope to be one of 13 schools that will receive at-large bids based on their regular-season and postseason performances. The NCAA Championships field will be announced tomorrow (Saturday, Nov. 15). Four individual competitors (whose teams are not already qualified for the NCAA Championships) will also receive at-large bids to Terre Haute, Indiana.

• Michigan has competed in the NCAA Championships each year since 2001. With an at-large bid tomorrow, the program's streak would extend to 13 consecutive NCAA appearances.

• Today's fourth-place finish means that the Wolverines have finished top-four in the NCAA Great Lakes Regional in 22 of 23 seasons under head coach Mike McGuire. The last year U-M did not finish top-three before today's result was 2001.

• Brook Handler earned All-Great Lakes Region honors with her seventh-place showing, giving her three consecutive seasons of earning that distinction.

• Megan Weschler also picked up all-region recognition with her 22nd-place showing, the same placing she finished with in 2013, giving her back-to-back seasons of All-Great Lakes Region performances.

• Today's race marked the first NCAA Great Lakes Regional experience for Jaimie Phelan, Gina Sereno and Laura Addison. For Addison, today was her first championship race experience in a Michigan uniform.

• Brook Handler was among four Wolverines to set a 6K personal-best in today's race, with her time of 20:08. Additional PRs came from Megan Weschler (20:40), Gina Sereno (20:46) and Laura Addison (20:59).

Q U O T E S

Michigan Head Coach Mike McGuire
On the team's overall performance today ... "Today was bittersweet. I thought we had some good performances blended in with some average ones. It looks to be enough of an effort to advance us, and I think we were trying to battle through some adversity. In terms of highlights, I thought Brook was much more aggressive than she was at Big Tens. I thought she ran a really good race and we were also much more aggressive with Megan Weschler and Gina Sereno. They lost some ground at the end but I am not going to fault them for that because they competed hard throughout. I thought Gina did a great job going back to her hometown of Madison. She really stuck her nose in there pretty well. For someone running just their second championship race, I thought she did a great job. She's someone that's really going to help us in the future because she's a racer. We just have to continue to develop her."

On the adversity this year's team has battled and how they've responded ... "Our situation recently has availed people like (Gina) Sereno and Laura Addison an opportunity. This was Laura's first high-level meet and she's been in the program for four years. I thought she did a wonderful job. To put that type of result (forward) in that kind of forum; we hope it bodes well and motivates her for bigger and better things moving forward."

U-M Senior Brook Handler
On her and her teammates' performances today ... "We came into this meet with a few setbacks. I don't think there were a lot of other teams in our region that lost three of their top four in the last few weeks, but we tried to stay tough and showed resiliency. It wasn't our best meet by any means; we definitely had people who still haven't had that perfect race yet, but we are excited that we hopefully have made it through so we can give a better effort on another day and maybe have five people have good races on the same day, because we haven't had that yet. Individually, I put myself out there a lot more than I usually do. Usually I sit back through the first 3K or so and I put myself right in the mix in the first K. I had a bit of a lapse with about 1,000 meters to go, so that's something I need to work on before nationals, not getting frustrated when another team goes by, because that's certainly going to happen at nationals. I'm proud of the fact that I was able to race on my own."

Communications Contact: Chad Shepard (734) 763-4423