The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 9A
Blue
better,
butnot
its best
By JASON KOHLER
Daily Sports Writer
After Saturday's race at the
NCAA Pre-Nationals in Terre
Haute, Ind., the consensus among
the women's cross country team
went mostly like this: "It wasn't
our best race, but it was better than
the Notre Dame Invitational."
Two and a half weeks ago in
South bend, the team finished in a
disappointing fourth place.
On Saturday, No. 13 Michigan
finished third among the 35 teams
at Pre-Nationals - behind No. 8
Princeton and No. 6 Arizona State.
Three Wolverines finished in the
top 25, including redshirt junior
Nicole Edwards (20:29) at 11th
place, fifth-year senior Erin Web-
ster (20:39) at 13th and sophomore
Jenny Morgan (20:56) at 25th.
The pace was fast, and the Mich-
iganrunners had difficulty running
as a cohesive group.
"In big races, it is helpful to find
each other out there on the course
and help each other along the way,"
Edwards said. "If you are running
with a teammate and you feel tired,
all you need to remember is to stay
with them. If I run with them in
workouts, then I canrun with them
in a race."
On Saturday, many of the Wol-
verines struggled with pushing the
pace during the middle of the race
when they began to feel fatigued.
Michigan will have few worries
about keeping motivated in the
next two weeks as it prepares to
compete for its sixth straight con-
ference title at the Big Ten Cham-
pionships.
"I wouldn't say that the third-
place finish (at Pre-Nationals) was
a complete failure," Webster said.
"It's good in a sense that no one
will be satisfied, and that will give
us motivation to work even harder
going into Big Tens."
'M' surprises with 4th finish
By JASON KOHLER
Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan men's cross coun-
try team was ranked eighth among
teams in the White Division in
NCAA Pre-Nationals on Saturday. It
finished fourth.
"I thinkwe surprised a lot of peo-
ple, and a lot of guys really stepped it
up this weekend," said senior Mike
Woods, who finished seventh over-
all (23:24) in the 8,000-meter race.
Woods started fast but fell back
from the leaders after 5,000 meters.
Still, the captain's time was his sea-
son best, despite the hilly landscape
of the LaVern Gibson Championship
Course in Terre Haute, Ind.
The 18th-ranked Wolverines
have surprised all season with their
continued improvement.
Two other Wolverines finished
in the top 50: redshirt sophomores
Sean McNamara (23:48) at 28th and
Brandon Fellows (24:03) at 48th.
Junior Lex Williams, out with a
case of poison oak, didn't compete.
"Once we get Lex in jersey, we
will really be a force to be reckoned
with," Woods said.
Williams is set to return next Fri-
day at the EMU Classic, and could
eliminate 30-40 points per meet.
He will also be in the lineup in
two weeks when the team heads to
Columbus for the Big Ten Champi-
onship. Last year, the Wolverines
finished second behind Wisconsin.
"Wisconsin has got to be the
heavy favorites," Warhurst said.
"They are Big Ten Champions eight
years in a row. I think we can run
with them. We have to have the best
run of the season, and they have to
have a mistake or two. But I think
we could win."
Michigan has been preparing
since Aug. 20, and the top run-
ners on the team ran anywhere
between 92-98 miles last week, said
Warhurst. The team has used the
training to improve mentally. The
runners admit they were not mature
enough in their preparation for last
year's championship meets, when
they didn't qualify for nationals.
As the Wolverines continue to
improve and surprise the competi-
tion, they are getting a sense of how
good they are.
"The teams that were there (at
Pre-Nationals) were very good,"
Warhurst said. "So we compare
ourselves to them, and we think we
came out pretty good."
Senior Nicole Edwards led the Wolverines to third place at NCAA Pre-Nationals.
Besides the freshmen, no one on
the team has ever experienced any-
thing but first place in the Big Ten.
"I don't even want to think of
not winning Big Tens, because it's
that huge," Webster said. "Win-
ning the Big Tens would give us the
motivation we needed that we are
this good team that we practice as
every day."
But winning a sixth conference
championship will be difficult.
Michigan is ranked behind three
Big Ten powers: No. 4 Minnesota,
No. 9 Michigan State and No. 10
Illinois. At Pre-Nationals, Michi-
gan finished ahead of Illinois, who
took fifth.
Just as the Wolverines felt that
they ran better at Pre-Nationals
than at Notre Dame, they know
that the team must continue to
improve when it looks to extend its
Big Ten superiority at the Big Ten
Championships in Columbus in
two weeks.
"Winning five times in a row,
that's something that we are defi-
nitely proud of," Edwards said. "It
will really hurt if we lost the sixth
time out. How can we have any
other goal but to win?"
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