Goals not met can always serve as motivation for the future.
That was exactly the thought of coach Cami Wells as the BG women’s cross country team ended its season Saturday. BG finished 23rd in the 32-team field at the Great Lakes Region Meet.
Heather Conger led BG for the second time this season, finishing 112th with a time of 23:12.
‘Heather has had her best cross country season so far in her career due to her hard work and tenacity,’ Wells said. ‘I think that she now has the necessary confidence to be a top contender in the conference in track and cross country in the future.’
Seniors Andrea Pereira de Almeida and Carly Wells ended their cross country careers second and fourth, respectively, for the team in their final meet.
‘Carly and Andrea are very positive, supportive young ladies who care about their teammates, so they will be missed for their leadership by example in practice and outside,’ Wells said. ‘Both Carly and Andrea are tremendously hard workers, and they have been solid contributors to the team throughout their careers here at BG. They will be missed.’
BG ended its season with a disappointing 7th-place finish at the Mid-American Conference Championships on Oct. 31 and a finish outside the top half of the field in Saturday’s race.
The Falcons still had a fairly successful season, however. They recorded a first- and second-place finish in their two home meets, and they had five different runners lead the team in seven meets, a sign of the depth the team enjoyed throughout the season.
‘There is always frustration when you don’t reach all your goals, but at the same time we reached many goals as a team and had many positive individual and team finishes this season,’ Wells said. ‘You use the goals you didn’t reach as motivation next time out.
‘I really enjoyed the season with the team and working with the young women on the team. I can never ask for more than athletes who are hard-working and dedicated.’
Wells believes the outlook for next season is very promising.
‘We lose Andrea and Carly but return the majority of the team, as well as redshirt Katie Borgelt, so at this point the focus is to finish recruiting, to bring in 2-4 new freshmen and to just continue to grow as a team; so the outlook is very positive,’ she said. ‘I have hard-working, talented athletes, so now we just need to continue to work on putting everything together on the same day and getting that MAC meet finish we have the potential to achieve next season.’ ‘
