The UW-Oshkosh women’s cross-country team qualified for the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III National Championship after placing fourth in the regional meet Saturday with a score of 139 points.
UW-Eau Claire won the meet with 53 team points, followed by Washington University (Mo.) with 72 points and UW-La Crosse finished third with 98 points.
“We put together our best team meet of the season,” Titans coach Deb Vercauteren said.
Senior Ayla Mitchell set the pace for the meet, finishing the race in first place with a time of 20 minutes and 51 seconds.
It was Mitchell’s second consecutive victory as she won the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference meet last week.
Mitchell also won the 2008 NCAA Midwest Regional meet as well.
Junior Jennifer Piskor finished the race in 23rd place with a time of 22:26, which was a personal best.
Freshman McKenzie Kelly finished in 25th place with a time of 22:32, also a personal record.
Juniors Cassie Petersen and Mallory Burk finished 41st and 49th, respectively.
Piskor said she was looking to have a stronger race after a disappointing performance last weekend.
“I had a bad race at conference so I was kind of out for vengeance there,” Piskor said. “I went out hard and tried to hold out as best I could.”
One aspect Vercauteren wanted to improve on was getting the two through five runners closer.
“We always like to close the gap up from two through five,” Vercauteren said. “In cross- country everyone always has one or two good runners, and it usually is where your fifth runner comes in determines what place you get.”
Piskor thought that the Titans had a distinct advantage racing on their home course.
“We know that course like the back of our hand,” Piskor said. “We’ve practiced on it a few times during the season. It really helped us know all our points in the race, where we know at the end when to kick. It’s a nice comfort zone to have.”
Vercauteren also thought the home course gave the Titans an advantage.
“We go out there and train and you know every single thing about the course,” she said. “Every little uphill, every little downhill, every little corner. You get to sleep in your own bed and you’re more in normal routine.”
Additionally, Mitchell, Piskor and Kelly were named to the Midwest All-Region Team as well.
The team will travel to Beachwood, Ohio for the national competition on Nov. 21.
Vercauteren said she wants to build off of an 18th place finish at nationals last year.
“If we can sneak into the top-10, that would be awesome,” Vercauteren said. That would be a great accomplishment.”
Piskor echoed her coach’s thoughts.
“I definitely think we can take top-10 at nationals as a team,” she said.
Mitchell wins NCAA regional
Published: Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Updated: Wednesday, November 18, 2009
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