Michigan
NCAA Championships
Davre, Evenson Lead Wolverine Women to Fourth at NCAA Championships
11/17/2018 12:44:00 PM | Women's Cross Country
Site: Madison, Wis. (Thomas Zimmer Championship Course)
Event: NCAA Championships
Distance: Six Kilometers (3.73 miles)
U-M Team Finish: 4th place of 31 teams (213 points)
Top U-M Individual: Camille Davre, 29th (20:28.84)
Next U-M Event: Season Completed
• Complete Results
MADISON, Wis. -- The No. 6 University of Michigan women's cross country team capped off its 2018 season by making the national podium with a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Cross Country Championships on Saturday morning (Nov. 17).
Led by All-Americans Camille Davre in 29th place and Avery Evenson in 38th among seven women who finished top-100 nationally in the six-kilometer (3.73-mile) race at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course, the Wolverines scored 213 points to finish ahead of fifth-place Stanford with 232 points. Third-place Oregon was the next team ahead of Michigan in the standings with 160 points.
This marks the third time in the last six seasons that Michigan has made the NCAA team podium by finishing top-four nationally, and the sixth time in program history.
The team national title was claimed by Colorado (65 points), led by individual winner Dani Jones.
Michigan's depth was among the best it has ever been in program history at the NCAA meet. Not since the 1994 national runner-up team had the Wolverines put all seven runners in the top 100.
Freshman Anne Forsyth was just outside All-America territory in 46th, with Hannah Meier 63rd and Claire Borchers 79th to round out the Michigan scoring lineup. Anna West and Jessi Larson were not much farther behind in 92nd and 99th, respectively.
National champion Colorado was the only other team in the field with seven top-100 runners. National runner-up New Mexico and third-place Oregon were the only other teams to have six or more top-100 finishers.
As they have been all year long, the Wolverines were one of the best pack-running teams in the field. Michigan finished with a 28.3-second spread between Davre and Borchers -- second-best among all teams and best among top-10 squads -- and a race-best 35.9-second 1-7 gap between Davre and Larson. Only Princeton (45.2 seconds) ran more closely together through seven finishers.
This marked the final race in the Michigan careers of Evenson and Borchers, both of whom finished their Michigan careers as competing members of three top-10 NCAA squads. Evenson will go down as a two-time All-American, while Borchers is now a two-time top-100 finisher.
Meanwhile, Davre is just beginning her NCAA legacy. Her 29th-place finish as a redshirt freshman is third among U-M rookies behind only the 1994 performances of 15th-place Deanna Arnill and 22nd-place Pauline Arnill, and just ahead of the 30th-place showing by Erin Finn in 2013. The same goes for Forsyth, whose 46th-place effort puts her behind only those four, 35th-place Molly McClimon in 1990 and 39th-place Katie McGregor in 1995, and equal to teammate Maddy Trevisan from 2016.
The Wolverines got out into a strong position early in the race, checking in sixth through the one-third split at two kilometers. Evenson and Forsyth were both running top-40 (28th and 34th) with the group of Davre, Borchers, Larson, Meier and West all in the 90s and low 100s, separated by just a second.
Capitalizing on its good standing within the field, Michigan made some big moves over the next third of the race. By the time the field passed through the four-kilometer split point, U-M had moved up into fourth place -- a position it would not cede the rest of the way -- over Stanford, 239-272.
Davre made a big surge to catch up with Evenson and Forsyth, with her 43-position jump to 47th surpassed by only 11 other women in the field over the middle two kilometers of the race. She was not alone in her surge, as Meier moved up 24 spots, Borchers climbed 16, and Larson stepped up 14.
Even with Forsyth (41st), Evenson (43rd) and Davre running in All-America territory at that point, the big surges by the back half of the lineup gave the Wolverines a tidy 14-second spread.
The final two kilometers -- marked by a significant uphill climb, a long straightaway and another uphill slog to the finish -- came down to a battle between the Wolverines and the Stanford Cardinal.
Late-race strength and positioning proved key for the Wolverines as they ultimately prevailed over the Cardinal in the final 2,000 meters. Only two other All-Americans had bigger moves up the field in the final 2K than did Davre with an 18-spot climb, and Meier executed her signature late-race surge to a T with a 12-spot improvement.
Evenson made a five-person surge that ultimately made the difference between being an All-American and finishing outside the top 40.
Led by those three, the Wolverines gained enough ground late to hold off a surging Stanford scoring lineup that itself gained 56 spots in the final 2,000 meters.
Michigan Results
29. Camille Davre -- 20:28.84
38. Avery Evenson -- 20:33.04
46. Anne Forsyth -- 20:41.61
63. Hannah Meier -- 20:46.56
79. Claire Borchers -- 20:57.10
92. Anna West -- 21:01.52
99. Jessi Larson -- 21:04.72
Team Standings
1. #4 Colorado -- 65 points
2. #1 New Mexico -- 103
3. #2 Oregon -- 160
4. #6 MICHIGAN -- 213
5. #7 Stanford -- 232
6. #3 Boise State -- 288
7. #9 BYU -- 310
8. #16 Notre Dame -- 313
9. #14 Washington -- 321
10. #10 Wisconsin -- 325
11. #12 Michigan State -- 341
12. #23 Portland -- 344
13. #11 North Carolina State -- 367
14. #5 Arkansas -- 398
15. #13 Iowa State -- 403
16. #21 Florida -- 455
17. #20 Indiana -- 455
18. #19 Columbia -- 468
19. #24 Oklahoma State -- 481
20. #22 Penn State -- 482
21. #17 Princeton -- 488
22. #26 Ole Miss -- 509
23. #15 Furman -- 527
24. #8 Villanova -- 547
25. #25 Southern Utah -- 564
26. #18 Florida State -- 584
27. #29 Oregon State -- 600
28. #30 Georgia Tech -- 653
29. #27 Minnesota -- 673
30. #28 Dartmouth -- 751
31. Texas (RV) -- 862
Michigan will open the indoor track and field season Saturday, Jan. 12, when it hosts the Wolverine Invitational at the U-M Indoor Track Building on the Stephen M. Ross Athletic Campus South Complex.
Players Mentioned
