The IU men’s cross-country team hit its stride to finish third in the Big Ten Championship meet Sunday in Lincoln, Nebraska.
The men’s team came into the meet ranked No. 22 in the nation, but overcame close competition to finish one point ahead of Michigan and three points ahead of Michigan State.
Junior Kyle Mau led the men’s team yet again with a seventh-place individual finish while freshman Dustin Horter took 14th to propel the Hoosiers past the Wolverines and Spartans.
“As you can tell by the results, it was super close,” Mau said. “I think our pack running made all the difference and working as a unit rather than as individuals. The main focus for us these next couple weeks is just getting back, making sure we’re recovered from this one and then getting back into our regular routine.”
No. 4 Wisconsin took first in the meet, finishing with 38 points. Purdue scored 88 points to place second, while IU scored 108 points en route to the team’s third-place finish.
“Every point was going to matter,” IU Coach Ron Helmer said. “It wasn’t perfect, but they gave the effort that we needed to have so that we could win some of those one-on-one battles that ended up being decisive in the team score.”
On the women’s side, seniors Katherine Receveur and Maggie Allen led IU with sixth and ninth place finishes. Helmer said they both ran their best races of the season, but the team placed fifth in the meet.
“I think that we knew we gave it our all,” Receveur said. “We both said it's just relaxing to run and see each other there because we hurt in practice and we’re so used to hurting next to each other that it’s almost comforting to see her there beside me.”
Thirty-one seconds after Allen crossed the finish line, freshman Bailey Hartenstein was the next IU runner to score. She placed 28th with a time of 20:52.5, followed by senior Haley Harris’ time of 20:54.8 as she took 30th.
Junior Lexa Barrott was the final Hoosier to score for the women’s team, finishing 39th.
The IU women’s team ended the race behind Michigan, Michigan State, Wisconsin and Penn State after scoring 110 points on the day. Michigan earned its third consecutive Big Ten title with 57 points.
“I think that a lot of people have gotten better and it’s just gotten really competitive," Receveur said. "The Big Ten is one of the best conferences in the nation. When you get to that last 1K, the places were so close, it was down to like a second and people were just starting picking it up.”
Receveur said the Big Ten is probably the second-best conference in the nation. While the team's placement in this race was disappointing, the road to the national meet won’t get any easier.
“It sucks that we got fifth going in ranked,” Receveur said. “But, I think some teams pulled out some girls that they were redshirting or they hadn’t raced yet. Coach said going into the race that there were five teams that could win it today.”
IU will see these teams again Nov. 9 when it travels to Terre Haute, Indiana, to compete in the Great Lakes NCAA Regional.
“I’m proud of the way they competed,” Helmer said. “If we can go to the national meet and come out of there with a high place that we can be really happy with, we’re going to forget what this weekend felt like, good or bad. That’s the cool thing about this sport.”
