Michigan
NCAA Championships
Wolverines Run to 17th-Place Finish at NCAA Championships
3/15/2021 2:43:00 PM | Women's Cross Country
Site: Stillwater, Okla. (Oklahoma State Cross Country Course)
Event: NCAA Championships
Distance: Six kilometers (3.73 miles)
U-M Result: 17th place of 31 teams (400 points)
Next U-M Event: Season completed
• Complete Results (PDF)
STILLWATER, Okla. -- Led by three top-100 finishers, the University of Michigan women's cross country team finished 17th overall at the rescheduled 2020 NCAA Cross Country Championships on a windy, warm Monday afternoon (March 15) on the grounds of the Oklahoma State Cross Country Course.
Ericka VanderLende placed 63rd, Kathryn House was 84th, and Samantha Tran finished 90th as the Wolverines posted a team score of 400 points to produce Michigan's 10th straight top-20 finish at the NCAA Championships under head coach Mike McGuire.
Rounding out Michigan's five-woman scoring lineup were 108th-place Jena Metwalli and 152nd-place Kayla Windemuller. Alice Hill was 189th for the Wolverines, and Katelynne Hart did not finish the race.
BYU claimed the individual title with 96 points, with Alabama's Mercy Chelangat taking the individual win.
Just as she did a year ago, VanderLende established herself among the lead group, where she stayed for the first half of the race as she climbed to as high as 12th to bring Michigan to a race-best 11th-place team standing at the race's halfway point. She started to fall off the pace in the second half, ultimately dropping out of All-America territory from 30th to 63rd in the last 1,000 meters.
House climbed as high as 54th at the four-kilometer split before notching her first top-100 finish at the NCAA Cross Country Championships.
Tran closed harder than almost anyone in the entire 253-runner field en route to a top-100 finish in her NCAA Championships debut. She moved up 32 spots in the final kilometer, better than all but nine other runners in the field, and her 3:40.0 split over that distance was 37th-fastest in the race.
Metwalli closed similarly hard in the final 1,000 meters, gaining 15 spots over the last split to make the most of her first and only NCAA Championships appearance.
With both the indoor track and field and cross country seasons now in the books as of this past weekend, Michigan will now fully turn its attention toward the spring outdoor track and field season. A schedule has not yet been announced for the season.
Michigan Results
65. Ericka VanderLende (21:14.7)
84. Kathryn House (21:24.6)
90. Samantha Tran (21:27.4)
108. Jena Metwalli (21:32.5)
152. Kayla Windemuller (21:53.3)
189. Alice Hill (22:18.7)
--- Katelynne Hart (DNF)
Players Mentioned
