University of Minnesota Athletics
Price Wins NCAA Midwest Title, Gophers Third
11/13/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country
The top two teams in each of the nine NCAA regional sites around the nation earn automatic bids into the Nov. 22 NCAA Cross Country Championships. The NCAA will announce 13 at-large berths on Monday. Minnesota is in excellent shape to receive one of those bids thanks to a solid body of work throughout the season. The Gophers would make a school-record sixth consecutive NCAA appearance.
Price covered the 6-kilometer course at Bradley University’s Newman Golf Course in a time of 20 minutes,1 .48 seconds. Price joins Rasa Michniovaite Troup (1998) as Gophers to win individual Midwest Region titles.
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Price has part of a leading pack of six runners that broke from the field, yet stayed intact throughout the first four kilometers of the race. With 500 meters left in the race, Price made her move and hung on for the win with a slight margin of victory of only 6-hundredths of a second (0.14). Iowa State’s Betsy Saina charged late to finish second in 20:01.54.
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“This wasn’t our best team race but it was a solid race and it’s great that Steph won,” said Golden Gopher head coach Gary Wilson. We knew it was going to be a four-team race, but nobody was going to beat Iowa State today. They ran amazing today.”
In addition to Price, two other Gophers earned all-region honors by placing in the top 25. Missa Varpness finished 19th in her first NCAA Midwest Region race, clocking a time of 20:40.70. Nikki Swenson collected her second all-region honor of her career, finishing 24th in a time of 20:50.50.
Completing the Gophers’ scoring five were Ashlie Decker, who placed 29th in a time of 21:05.28; and Katie Moraczewski, who finished 45th in 21:17.80. Others competing for Minnesota was Kayla Wagner, who placed 79th in 21:48.04; and Kelly Wilson, who was 80th in 21:48.38.
Players Mentioned
