After winning the Big Ten and the Great Lakes Regional in back to back meets, the Spartans finished off the year in sixth place at the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Women's cross country finishes season strong with sixth place finish at NCAA Championships
November 24, 2019
Annie Fuller runs during the 39th annual Spartan Invitational on Sept. 13, 2019 at Forest Akers East Golf Course. (Photo courtesy of MSU Athletic Communications)
Michigan State was led by a pair of seniors running their final cross country race in the green and white, Jeralyn Poe and Annie Fuller. Poe led the Spartans with a thirty-second place (twenty fourth taking out the individual qualifiers) effort with a time of 20:40.3. Right behind Poe was Annie Fuller who finished in thirty-fourth (twenty sixth) with a time of 20:42.4.
Here are the full results of the top seven from the Spartans:
32. Jeralyn Poe 20:40.3
34. Annie Fuller 20:42.4
46. Jenna Magness 20:54.6
49. Lynsie Gram 20:56.4
121. Sarah Kettel 21:24.0
137. Maggie Farrell 21:29.7
239. India Johnson 22:45.1
The Arkansas Razorbacks were the favorites coming in and they were ultimately crowned National Champions and the runner-ups were Brigham Young University. Head Coach Walt Drenth prior to the NCAA Championships thought that the Razorbacks and Cardinals would be tough, and he was correct in his assumption.
“There are a couple of teams this year that are appreciably better than us if the whole thing falls in a normal way.” said Drenth “If nobody implodes, there are a couple teams that I don’t know if anybody in the country can get to them, and that’s Stanford and Arkansas.”
The surprise of the day was BYU, who at the 2000-meter mark was actually leading the race by 24 points.
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Here are your top ten teams in today’s NCAA Championships:
1. Arkansas 96
2. Brigham Young 102
3. Stanford 123
4. New Mexico 168
5. North Carolina State 190
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6. Michigan State 209
7. Wisconsin 235
8. Air Force 259
9. Furman 290
10. Colorado 294
The men also had a representative in Terre Haute as junior Morgan Beadlescomb qualified with a sixth place finish at the Great Lakes Regional. After a 10K race, Beadlescomb finished in twenty-third place with a time of 31:10.9.
Looking forward to next season, the Lady Spartans will return many talented runners including Magness and Johnson as they look to return to the NCAA Championships for their twentieth straight season. With Drenth at the helm, there’s no doubt they’ll return as strong a team as ever.
