Michigan
Pre-National Invitational
Wolverine Women Finish Fourth in Strong Pre-Nationals Field
10/19/2019 2:30:00 PM | Women's Cross Country
Site: Terre Haute, Ind. (LaVern Gibson Championship Course)
Event: Pre-National Invitational
Distance: Six Kilometers (3.73 miles)
U-M Team Finish: 4th of 37 teams (170 points)
Top U-M Individual: Ericka VanderLende, 5th (20:13.4)
Next U-M Event: Friday, Oct. 25 -- at Eastern Michigan Fall Classic (Dexter, Mich.), 5 p.m.
• Complete Results (PDF) | Photo Gallery
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- The three-time defending Big Ten champion and No. 7-ranked University of Michigan women's cross country team faced its toughest competition of the year on Saturday (Oct. 19) at the Pre-National Invitational, giving the Wolverines one final taste of national-caliber opposition with the postseason just two weekends away.
The Wolverines finished fourth in the team standings with 170 points in the top-seeded Blue Race as Ericka VanderLende led the way for the Wolverines with a fifth-place finish, covering the six-kilometer (3.73-mile) LaVern Gibson Championship Course in 20:13.4.
Facing a tough field that included three other top-10 teams in No. 8 Washington, No. 2 BYU and No. 3 Colorado, the Wolverines got a good sense of where they stand nationally -- and for when they hope to return to this same course for the NCAA Championships on Nov. 23.
The top spot in the team standings went to Washington with 89 points, followed by BYU at 92 and Colorado with 132.
Rounding out Michigan's scoring lineup -- comprised of its top five runners -- were 32nd-place Kathryn House (20:44.2), 41st-place Maddy Trevisan (20:52.6), 42nd-place Jena Metwalli (20:53.5) and 48th-place Camille Davre (20:55.8).
As they have all season long, the main Wolverine pack grouped up well behind the frontrunning VanderLende. The rest of its top five finished within 11.6 seconds of one another as they crossed the line. Michigan's sixth and seventh runners -- 49th-place Anna West and 69th-place Micaela DeGenero -- were not much farther behind as they came through the chute within another 12 seconds.
The 54.6 seconds between VanderLende and DeGenero was the field's second-best time spread between runners Nos. 1 through 7, and the Wolverines had the most top-50 finishers in the field with six.
VanderLende rattled off yet another superb race, reaffirming her status as one of nation's top runners and one of its top first-year competitors. The Rockford (Mich.) High School graduate went right to the front of the pack from the gun and did not relent the rest of the way. As the lead group shrunk to five in the race's final two kilometers, VanderLende ran stride-for-stride with a group in which she was the only runner with less than junior eligibility.
She hung with the group until the final long straightaway for home, as eventual winner Erica Birk of BYU pulled away over the final slightly-uphill 600 meters.
Her final time of 20:13.4 on the historically difficult LaVern Gibson course was four seconds faster than her 20:17.85 6K debut on the flatter, faster course at Ohio State three weeks ago. In Pre-Nationals history at Indiana State, the only freshman to have run faster is North Carolina State's Laura Hoer in 2010, when she clocked 20:13.2. For context, Erin Finn ran 20:33.8 as a freshman at Pre-Nationals in 2013.
For the third-straight race, House and Trevisan finished as Michigan's No. 2 and No. 3 runners, respectively. The pair established themselves near the front of the pack early and more or less stayed there through the first four kilometers, but the two fell from the 20s into the 30s and 40s by race's end. However, Trevisan's time was more than 20 seconds faster than what she ran at Ohio State last month, and House was 11 seconds quicker.
Metwalli built on her breakthrough race in Columbus with arguably the best race of her career as Michigan's No. 4 runner. She crossed the line in Terre Haute nearly half a minute faster than her Buckeye Preview performance, and she did it with one of the strongest closing splits of anyone on the team. After coming through 4K as Michigan's No. 7 runner in 59th, she covered the final 2K in 7:06.6 -- second only to VanderLende's 6:42.3 -- and moved up 16 spots for the team's biggest jump of the entire race.
Overall, her per-kilometer pace of 3:28.92 was more than two seconds faster than what she averaged at the John McNichols Invitational on this same course a month ago in a five-kilometer (3.11-mile) race.
Davre also closed strong, adding seven spots in the final two kilometers. Like Metwalli, she showed improvement over her McNichols Invite performance as she ran more than a second faster per kilometer.
In addition to its squad in the top-seeded Blue Race, Michigan also had five of the top seven runners in the open race in the afternoon. In a head-to-head duel that developed over the final kilometer, Emma Sloan and Alice Hill traded the lead several times, including at the finish line as Sloan edged out Hill for the win. After Hill had pulled ahead for much of the final 800 meters, Sloan was able to get by Hill on her right and lean at the line. Sloan crossed in 21:02.7, with Hill at 21:03.0.
If they had run the same times in the top-seeded Blue Race, they would have finished 63rd and 64th overall.
Though several Wolverines will compete at the Eastern Michigan Fall Classic on Friday (Oct. 25) at the Hudson Mills Metropark in Dexter, Michigan, many of the squad's top runners will not run to prepare for the Big Ten Championships at Ohio State on Nov. 3.
Michigan Results
Blue Race (Top-Seeded)
5. Ericka VanderLende -- 20:13.4
32. Kathryn House -- 20:44.2
41. Maddy Trevisan -- 20:52.6
42. Jena Metwalli -- 20:53.5
48. Camille Davre -- 20:55.8
49. Anna West -- 20:56.4
69. Micaela DeGenero -- 21:08.0
Open Race
1. Emma Sloan -- 21:02.7
2. Alice Hill -- 21:03.0
4. Kayla Keane -- 21:30.3
5. Raquel Powers -- 21:32.7
7. Faith Reynolds -- 21:43.8
Team Standings
Blue Race
1. No. 8 Washington -- 89 points
2. No. 2 BYU -- 92 points
3. No. 3 Colorado -- 132 points
4. No. 7 MICHIGAN -- 170 points
5. No. 11 Florida State -- 211 points
6. No. 20 Illinois -- 277 points
7. Virginia Tech (RV) -- 300 points
8. Butler (RV) -- 315 points
9. No. 26 Boston College -- 366 points
10. No. 17 Ole Miss -- 385 points
11. No. 30 Oklahoma State -- 388 points
12. No. 11 Boise State -- 393 points
13. Yale -- 421 points
14. Duke -- 454 points
15. Vanderbilt -- 504 points
16. North Carolina -- 511 points
17. Wichita State -- 535 points
18. Kentucky -- 542 points
19. Alabama -- 544 points
20. Cornell -- 577 points
21. California -- 582 points
22. Liberty -- 589 points
23. UC Davis -- 595 points
24. Iowa -- 607 points
25. Weber State -- 618 points
26. Montana State -- 657 points
27. Loyola (Ill.) -- 672 points
28. Northern Illinois -- 673 points
29. Georgia -- 687 points
30. Virginia -- 721 points
31. Lipscomb -- 740 points
32. Toledo -- 755 points
33. -- 768 points
34. -- 831 points
35. Miami (Ohio) -- 843 points
36. Kansas -- 940 points
Players Mentioned
