Walt Drenth, coach of the MSU cross country and track and field team, said the win for the women is exciting and a relief. He said the women did a number of things on Sunday to help them clench that top spot.

“They behaved like a team more than anything else,” Drenth said. “We knew if we ran well as a group, we would have a legitimate chance to win. They were committed to each other, patient and they ran the last portion of the race.”

O’Connor said the team win was probably one of the sweetest experiences to have as a runner, especially since they could all celebrate together.

“We knew what we were capable of as a team, and we were able to stay together as a pack,” O’Connor said. “Pack running is so powerful, especially in the Big Ten. I remember I could hear my teammates next to me, and I knew I was working with them. You know they are depending on you, and you just have to keep grinding and working with your teammates through the entire course.”

The men’s team finished with 170 points, giving them a seventh-place finish, but had one Spartan in the top five: Caleb Rhynard. He finished fourth with a time of 24:21, the highest Spartan individual finish since 1998.

Rhynard said the race started slowly, but it picked up toward the end as the pack started separating and runners began making their moves. He said his individual finish this year was a big improvement, as he jumped 15 places from last year to this year, but the team didn’t perform as well as he had hoped.

“We just needed to run as a team a little better, and get up into the mix a little more,” Rhynard said. “(We needed to) hang onto each other as reference points, instead of just fighting alone.”

Drenth said the men probably needed to make adjustments in the way they managed the course. Nonetheless, he said they are an incredible group of athletes ready to take on the regional championship.

“(The men) were aggressive early, but they probably should’ve been a little more patient going in,” Drenth said. “I felt like we needed to find some medium. (But) if we can get control of our run, we will be fine at the regional race.”

As the team gears up for regionals, O’Connor said they hope to carry over the momentum from Sunday’s race.

“We can probably carry the confidence of knowing how to run as a team from Big Ten into regionals,” O’Connor said. “We are going to keep gearing up our energy levels, and practice as hard as we can.”

The cross country team will head to the NCAA Great Lakes Regional Championship on Nov. 15 in Madison, Wis.