Courtesy: Zolton Cohen
Cross Country Heads to the MAC Championships
KALAMAZOO -- The Western Michigan women's cross country team heads to Buffalo for the 2012 Mid-American Conference Championships on saturday morning.
The 6k race will begin at 11 a.m. at Beaver Island State Park in Grand Island, N.Y. The Broncos have finished six in each of the past two MAC Championships, including in 2010 when WMU hosted it.
WMU faces a challenging course, but one with not too many hills. The last time Buffalo hosted, back in 2006, the course provided a lot of extra challenges.
"It was an absolute mud bath," said head coach Kelly Lycan. "It was the worst cross country conditions I had ever seen. The last 200 meters people were shin deep in mud. It was like one of those tough mudder races."
There is one steep hill on the course, approximately 50 meters long but according to Lycan, even a heavy rain over the next day wouldn't be able to duplicate those conditions.
Each team is allowed to field a squad of nine runners. Cara Cremeans, Aisha Hodge, Teresa Marin, Lauren McUmber, Ashley Moyer, Becca Peacock, Tiffany Rauch and Rachel Whitley will all compete on Saturday morning. Whitley finished just 0.2 seconds shy of a top-14 finish and Second Team All-MAC honors last year.
"I just hope we can get all of the horses on an up day," said Lycan. "It would be good to see everyone run to their potential. If they can do that, I think we will be very happy with our results. You can't have an off day in our sport, you have to put up or shut up and do it all in the same race."
The 6k race will begin at 11 a.m. at Beaver Island State Park in Grand Island, N.Y. The Broncos have finished six in each of the past two MAC Championships, including in 2010 when WMU hosted it.
WMU faces a challenging course, but one with not too many hills. The last time Buffalo hosted, back in 2006, the course provided a lot of extra challenges.
"It was an absolute mud bath," said head coach Kelly Lycan. "It was the worst cross country conditions I had ever seen. The last 200 meters people were shin deep in mud. It was like one of those tough mudder races."
There is one steep hill on the course, approximately 50 meters long but according to Lycan, even a heavy rain over the next day wouldn't be able to duplicate those conditions.
Each team is allowed to field a squad of nine runners. Cara Cremeans, Aisha Hodge, Teresa Marin, Lauren McUmber, Ashley Moyer, Becca Peacock, Tiffany Rauch and Rachel Whitley will all compete on Saturday morning. Whitley finished just 0.2 seconds shy of a top-14 finish and Second Team All-MAC honors last year.
"I just hope we can get all of the horses on an up day," said Lycan. "It would be good to see everyone run to their potential. If they can do that, I think we will be very happy with our results. You can't have an off day in our sport, you have to put up or shut up and do it all in the same race."
