The BG women’s cross country team achieved its goal of ranking in the top 13 teams this weekend at the NCAA Regionals in Wisconsin.
Junior Becca Rae ended her year on a good note, finishing first for the Falcons in 64th. Her performance helped the Falcons finish ranked number 13.
“It went pretty well,” Rae said. “Wish I placed a little bit higher, but I’m still definitely happy with the performance.”
Her place was the best single performance since the 2007 season and one second short of the fastest time ever recorded by a BG athlete at a championship event.
Rae was followed by sophomore Brent Darah tying his season personal record of 21:43 and redshirt junior Jasmine Redman came in third with a time of 21:49.
“I was happy with how they ran today,” Head Coach Lou Snelling said. “In terms of the goals we set for the meet, we achieved many of them. From a numbers standpoint, the improvements from last season were impressive.”
Snelling also said he looks forward to the track and field season with all of the female runners returning.
“We are excited about what we can accomplish next year … there is a lot of potential with this team.”
In their lone 10,000 meter race of the season, freshman Kohl Taberner led the men’s side for the fourth time this season. He finished with a time of 32:20, coming in 107th overall and 27th among the Mid-American Conference runners. The men finished 26th out of 30 teams.
Senior Greg Black finished in second place with a time of 33:06. This was his last race as a Falcon as he’ll graduate this semester.
“It’s a tough loss losing Greg,” said Assistant Coach Greg Thatcher. “He’s a good player and he was a leader on the team.”
Despite the loss of the senior, Thatcher was proud of the team’s performance.
“I was pleased, the guys did a tremendous job,” said Thatcher. “We’re excited that, individually we’re seeing some results that are stuff that we can be proud of.”
Thatcher also gave credit to freshman Taberner for rising up in the final race.
“He did a tremendous job, he stepped up in a big way,” said Thatcher.
Thatcher said the main objectives heading into next semester were staying healthy and raising the level of training. For Thatcher, they can see more personal records broken if they achieve these goals.
