12th-place finish ends season

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- The women's cross country team failed to prolong their season on Saturday, placing 12th at the Great Lakes Regional. Indiana scored 320 points in the meet. \nMichigan State University won the meet with a total of 58 points. Indiana's nearest competitor was Miami University of Ohio with 260 points.\n"If you have the slightest feeling that you're not ready to go, you won't do well," head coach Judy Bogenschutz said. "The way they ran all season affected this meet."\nLeading the Hoosiers was junior Amanda Bell, who placed 34th overall. Sophomore Becky Obrecht crossed the line second for the Hoosiers and 53rd overall. Finishing the scoring for IU were sophomores Audrey Gielser in 75th and Heidi Crowley in 77th and freshman Mindy Peterson in 81st.\n"I think my race was a lot better than it has been because I was focused the whole race and passing people," Bell said.\nBogenschutz said she was happy with Bell's performance. Bell is making her way back from injury.\n"Today's race helps her see that she can get out there and be positive," Bogenschutz said. "She's not where she should be though. She had a small triumph today."\nAlthough the team did not finish as well as they would have liked to, Bogenschutz said they were not ranked in the Regional all year and fared relatively well. \nBogenschutz added that one of the better runners did not run all that well on Saturday.\n"Our first runner was our fifth," Bogenschutz said. "She wasn't where she usually is. She's young and she freaked and got too nervous. I've had it happen to many people before. It doesn't take away from what she has done all season."\nThe young team said it will learn from the experiences of this season.\n"We know that we never ever want to be here again," Bell said. We know that this is unacceptable. We know that we can't do this again."\nNext season, the Hoosiers will return everyone that ran in the Regional race. There were also many freshmen from the team that were at the race. \nObrecht said this race will help them in the future.\n"We're all very disappointed as a team," she said. "We have to look past this race. If you don't learn anything from this, then you're not going anywhere."\nBogenschutz said she feels that same way.\n"They still realize that we have a lot of potential," she said. "They don't want to be 12th. We'll have seven girls back and we'll be ready to go"