Michigan
Big Ten Championships
Wolverine Women Claim Third Consecutive Big Ten Title
10/28/2018 12:35:00 PM | Women's Cross Country
Site: Lincoln, Neb. (Mahoney Golf Course)
Event: Big Ten Championships
Distance: Six Kilometers (3.73 miles)
U-M Team Finish: 1st place of 14 teams (57 points)
Top U-M Individual: Avery Evenson, 3rd (20:12.8)
Next U-M Event: Friday, Nov. 9 at NCAA Great Lakes Regional (Terre Haute, Ind.)
• Photo Gallery | Complete Results (PDF)
LINCOLN, Neb. -- For the third year in a row, the No. 7 University of Michigan women's cross country team claimed the Big Ten Conference team title, emerging victorious Sunday (Oct. 28) from among a talented field competing at Nebraska.
Led by top finisher Avery Evenson, the Wolverines posted a team score of 57 points to defeat runner-up No. 14 Michigan State with its 75-point total. The Wolverines led the Spartans by just six points -- 73-79 -- with only a kilometer to go in the six-kilometer (3.73-mile) race over the Mahoney Golf Course, but a strong finish secured Michigan the title.
No. 11 Wisconsin took third overall with 89 points, followed by No. 13 Penn State with 103, No. 10 Indiana with 110 and No. 21 Minnesota with 167.
Evenson was joined as an All-Big Ten performer by eighth-place Anne Forsyth -- the top first-year runner in the field -- in her collegiate debut and 11th-place Hannah Meier. Evenson earned first-team honors by finishing top-seven, while Forsyth and Meier were named to the second team for their finishes between eighth and 14th.
Those three provided the firepower up front for the Wolverines, but the team title was won with a full team effort. Powered by a strong mid-race surge, Camille Davre just missed All-Big Ten territory with a 16th-place finish, followed closely by 24th-place Anna West and 26th-place Jessi Larson. Haley Meier (31st) and Alice Hill (47th) rounded out the lineup.
Michigan's Nos. 3-9 runners were better than any other team's runners at those respective spots in their lineups. The Wolverines were the only team in the field with three runners in the top 15, five in the top 20 and seven in the top 30.
Forsyth becomes the favorite to claim Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors, beating the next-best freshman -- Julia Paternain of Penn State -- by two spots and nearly seven seconds. She would be the first recipient of that award for Michigan since Erin Finn in 2013.
The Race
After coming through the halfway point of the race in third place as a team, behind Michigan State and Indiana (78-86-94), the Wolverines made their move over the next kilometer to take narrow command of what had become a five-way race by four kilometers. The Wolverines checked in with 81 points, just one ahead of Penn State, two ahead of the Spartans, five ahead of Wisconsin and 11 clear of Indiana.
Davre was the big driver for U-M over that span, moving up nine spots -- one spot shy of the largest move between 3K and 4K of any runner in the field -- to establish herself in the top 25 along with second-place Forsyth, fourth-place Evenson and 24th-place Hannah Meier.
The Wolverines continued to push over the next kilometer, but so, too, did the in-state rival Spartans. At the final checkpoint before the finish with just 1,000 meters to go, Michigan led MSU by just six points, 73-79.
With third-place Forsyth and 10th-place Evenson still hanging strong at the front, Davre continued her surge forward another seven spots -- again just one spot shy of the biggest move in the field over the 4K-5K portion of the race. Meanwhile, both Hannah Meier and Larson moved up four spots to put themselves in the top 25.
Both the Wolverines and the Spartans were strong over the final 1,000 meters to the finish line, but the U-M proved stronger.
Of the 12 biggest movers and the 13 fastest women in the field over the final kilometer, five of them in each category were wearing the Maize and Blue. Evenson ran the third-fastest closing split of any woman in the field to jump up seven spots to third place at the finish line, with Meier clocking in as the fourth-fastest closer to jump up nine spots to 11th.
Borchers matched Meier's closing surge by picking off nine opponents over the final kilometer. Among top-50 individual finishers, no one matched Meier and Evenson, and only one additional woman exceeded Evenson's seven-spot jump.
Michigan becomes the first women's cross country team in conference history to have won three consecutive titles or more in three different decades. In addition to this 2016-18 run, the Wolverines also notched a three-peat in 1992-94 and they won five in a row from 2002-06.
Add in a 2012 title and that brings head coach Mike McGuire's career total to 12 conference team titles, just one shy of former Wisconsin coach Peter Tegen's Big Ten-record of 13. Those same numbers stand as the all-time totals for the two programs, with Michigan now just one year away from tying the Badgers as the most prolific team in league history.
Full Michigan individual results and final team standings are below.
Full Michigan Results
Individual Results
3. Avery Evenson -- 20:12.8 *
8. Anne Forsyth -- 20:16.2 **
11. Hannah Meier -- 20:28.8 **
16. Camille Davre -- 20:37.0
19. Claire Borchers -- 20:42.4
24. Anna West -- 20:46.4
26. Jessi Larson -- 20:49.5
31. Haley Meier -- 20:57.7
47. Alice Hill -- 21:26.4
* All-Big Ten First Team
** All-Big Ten Second Team
Team Standings
1. #7 MICHIGAN -- 57 points
2. #14 Michigan State -- 75 points
3. #11 Wisconsin -- 89 points
4. #13 Penn State -- 103 points
5. #10 Indiana -- 110 points
6. #21 Minnesota -- 167 points
7. Northwestern -- 200 points
8. Ohio State -- 232 points
9. Iowa -- 233 points
10. Purdue -- 260 points
11. Nebraska -- 283 points
12. Illinois -- 300 points
13. Rutgers -- 375 points
14. Maryland -- 381 points
Up Next for Michigan
The Wolverines will see many of these teams again in less than two weeks' time as berths to the NCAA Championships are up for grabs at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional in Terre Haute, Indiana, on Friday, Nov. 9 at 11:15 a.m.
Players Mentioned
