HILLSDALE, Mich. – Sophomore Maria McDaniel led the Western Michigan cross country team as it topped Michigan State in the battle of division one programs at the Michigan Intercollegiates held by Hillsdale University. WMU finished with a score of 16 while Michigan State finished with 43. Hillsdale, Wayne State and Mott Community College were also running the race and were only scored against one another. McDaniel won her second consecutive race and third this season out of four races the Broncos have run.
“Maria went out there a lot more conservatively to start the race today,” Head coach Kelly Lycan said. “The first part of the race she didn't put the hammer down but when she did it was like watching a Ferrari when she just took off.”
McDaniel, who has now won six races in her career, took first place with a winning time of 17:29.7 while second place Hannah McIntyre of Hillsdale finished with a time of 18:21.8. WMU claimed fifth through eighth place with freshman Sarah Anderson (18:34.7), sophomore Claire Gilbert (18:43.2) and junior Daya Wagh (18:45.1), respectively. Sophomore Hanne Christensen finished in ninth place (18:46.2) to round out the Broncos top five finishers.
Junior Amy Littlefield finished 15th (19:06.5), freshman Makenzie Evers 19th (19:29.0) with a new personal record, freshman Renee Letz 26th (20:13.6) and Emily Davis 34th (22:09.1) as other finishers for the Broncos.
“Our goal was we wanted to keep our pack tight and we did a very good job of that today,” Lycan said. “Our team did a good job of taking the first part of the race aggressively but too much where it would hurt us.”
The Broncos return to action on Saturday, Oct. 17 for the Pre-National Invitational held by the University of Louisville. The course this Invite will be run on is the same course as the National Championships on Saturday, Nov. 21.
