Hoosiers finish 4th in Regional Meet

TERRE HAUTE -- The No. 33 IU women's cross country team knew heading into the NCAA Great Lakes Regional Meet on a cold and rainy Saturday afternoon, it would have a tough task ahead to qualify for the NCAA National Championship meet.\nEarlier in the 2003 season, IU experienced injury to three of its returning top seven runners from a 2002 squad that competed at the NCAA National Championship meet, but this year's team started to peak at the right time by finishing fourth at the Big Ten Championships two weeks ago.\nThe Great Lakes Region perennially has some of the top teams in the nation, as this season boasts eight of the top 39 ranked teams in the latest FinishLynx NCAA Division 1 Women's Cross Country Poll. The top two teams receive automatic bids to the NCAA National Championship in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. IU finished fourth overall in a field of 30 teams, just edging No. 19 Marquette by nine points.\nHowever, the NCAA Division 1 Cross Country Championship Committee will determine today the 13 at-large bids -- which teams around the country can receive if they do not finish in the top two of their respective regions. Last season IU finished fourth in the Regional Meet and earned an at-large bid to the National Championship Meet; IU coach Judy Wilson believes the same will happen again this season.\n"We just had a great race," Wilson said. "So this team now deserves to go, because I told them that they didn't deserve to go to Nationals, that they need to work for it, and they did. They worked for it."\nFinishing ahead of IU was Notre Dame, Michigan and Michigan State. The FinishLynx Poll ranked those teams fourth, seventh, and 12th respectively.\nThe race featured 214 individual harriers, as the individual winner was All-American Molly Huddle from Notre Dame who finished with a six-kilometer time of 20:14.7. Leading the way for IU was senior Audrey Giesler who finished 14th overall with a time of 21:15.0.\n"It's tremendous that we beat Marquette and Wisconsin," Giesler said. "I think that's really going to help us, so, depending on how the other Regionals go, I think this puts us in a pretty good position to make NCAAs."\nRounding out the other finishers for IU were junior Mindy Peterson with a 20th place finish in 21:26.5, sophomore Kelly Siefker, 27th overall in 21:44.2. Freshman Kristin Whitezell finished 41st overall with a time of 22:01.5, sophomore Larra Overton, came in 48th in 22:10.2, junior Julie Shields, was 81st with a time of 22:42.1, and senior Heidi Crowley, came in 90th with a time of 22:59.3.\nPeterson said that going out and running with Giesler gave her encouragement in her own race.\n"We felt pretty dominant, you know, just running next to each other," Peterson said. "It gave us a lot of confidence knowing that we were both there. (Giesler) said she could still hear people cheering for me when she was in front of me."\nDepending on the committee's decision today, IU's season could be finished or its season could continue with its last meet Nov. 24 at the NCAA National Championship at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.\n-- Contact staff writer Steve Slivka at smslivka@indiana.edu.