Miami University
Penn State National Meet
RedHawks Take Fourth at PSU National Meet
10/16/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country
Oct. 16, 2010
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - Facing a field that featured the defending NCAA champion and a trio of Division I nationally ranked teams, the Miami University women's cross country team finished fourth Saturday morning at the 6K Penn State National Meet run on PSU's Blue and White Golf Courses. The race served as a final tune-up before the Mid-American Conference Championship in two weeks.
Senior Rachel Patterson (Rochester, Mich.) paced the RedHawks for the fourth time this season as she finished 12th in 21:07 while classmate Amanda Mirochna (Naperville, Ill.) finished in 23rd in a 6K personal-best time of 21:21. Redshirt junior Kelley Miller (Dublin, Ohio) and junior Maggie Bingham (Carmel, Ind.) finished 32nd and 33rd, respectively, with Miller clocking in at 21:39 and Bingham just three ticks later, both of which were personal bests.
Miami finished with 155 points in the 31-team field while defending NCAA champion and current No. 1 Villanova won the race with 26 points, putting all five scoring runners in the top 10. No. 7 Syracuse placed second with 57 points while the host and 30th-ranked Nittany Lions claimed third with 137 points. Grand Valley State, who is No. 1 in Division II, was right behind Miami in fifth with 166 points. The 'Hawks also finished ahead of regionally-ranked teams such as West Virginia, Cornell and Yale.
Senior Katie Lenahan (Cincinnati, Ohio) was Miami's final scorer, taking 55th in 22:10 while freshman Kate Carter (Ann Arbor, Mich.), who fell early in the race, was the sixth 'Hawk to finish, placing 57th just a second behind Lenahan. Junior Jillian Dickman (Madison, Ohio) rounded out Miami's runners, crossing in 88th.
"They all just ran really solid," head coach Kelly Phillips said. "Rachel probably had the worst race of anybody because she got a little intimidated when the whole Villanova team went by her, she panicked a little bit, but everyone ran really well."
Villanova's Sheila Reid won the race in 20:23 while Eastern Michigan's Courtney Calka was the top MAC finisher among the five MAC teams that competed, placing seventh overall in 20:52, while Patterson was the next-best MAC runner. The Eagles as a team were the second MAC squad in the standings, placing 11th, while Akron was 13th, Western Michigan was 15th and Buffalo took 20th.
"I think they're pretty fired up," Phillips said of the team's finish and the upcoming MAC Championship. "They were a little nervous coming in and a bit intimidated this morning but they got after it and it was a really crowded start and a bunch of people fell, but now they're really excited."
Miami, who won its first two MAC titles in program history each of the last two years, goes for a three-peat at the MAC Championship Saturday, Oct. 30 in Kalamazoo, Mich., with the race hosted by the WMU Broncos.
--MURedHawks.com--
Players Mentioned
