University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
Big Ten Championships
Five Gophers Run Career Bests at B1G Meet
11/2/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country
Nov. 2, 2014
IOWA CITY, Iowa - The top five Gophers all ran career-best times and two more ran season-best times as the No. 20 Minnesota women's cross country team finished fifth in the team standings at the 2014 Big Ten Cross Country Championships Sunday.
"I know going in that we were probably in that fourth to sixth place world, so being fifth was a little bit of a bummer," head coach Sarah Hopkins said. "We would've loved to come out of here fourth, but we fought hard with a good Ohio State team and know we can run with them on any given day."
Redshirt juniors Liz Berkholtz (16th, 20:31.5), Becca Dyson (18th, 20:37.5) and Kaila Urick (30th, 20:52.2) led Minnesota's charge as they have most of the season. All three clocked career-best 6K times at the University of Iowa's Ashton Cross Country Course.
Minnesota's fourth and fifth runners also ran career-best times as redshirt freshman Danielle Anderson was 35th overall in 21:06.5 and redshirt sophomore Haley Johnson finished 43rd in 21:14.6. Their performances particularly stood out to Hopkins as she was impressed with their Big Ten debuts.
"Haley Johnson had her best college race of her life, track or cross country," Hopkins said. "She really ran tough to be in the top 45, especially for someone who's never been here before. Danielle Anderson really stuck her nose in there and moved well through the race, too. They really did a nice job of responding to the call."
The teams battled 20 mile-per-hour winds and the temperature hovered around 40 degrees for the duration of the race. Hopkins felt Minnesota ran a great second half of the race but saw room for improvement over the first three kilometers.
"We ran a great race from 3K to 6K," Hopkins said. "We just weren't quite where we needed to be from 1K to 3K. We very easily couldn't folded at 3K when we were too far back, but nobody did that. You have to be proud of that, when you see people keep fighting over that second loop and pass a lot of people.
"We just really have to trust ourselves over the first part of the race and have that swagger to put our noses in there and be a little farther up. If we can do that, we can really do some special things over these next few weeks."
Along with five career-best times for the scoring Gophers, Minnesota's sixth and seventh runners recorded season-best efforts. Redshirt junior Kate Bucknam was 67th in 21:42.5 and redshirt sophomore Jamie Piepenburg was close behind in 70th overall (21:44.6).
National No. 1 Michigan State took the team title with 26 points, followed by No. 8 Wisconsin (55), No. 4 Michigan (93), No. 19 Ohio State (127) and the No. 20 Gophers (139) to round out the top five. MSU senior Leah O'Connor won the individual crown in 19:26.3.
The Big Ten Network will air coverage of the B1G championships on tape delay at 4 p.m. CT on Wednesday, Nov. 12.
Up next, the Gophers host Rocky's Run at Les Bolstad Course at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 8 before competing in the NCAA Midwest Regional meet on Friday, Nov. 14 at Bradley University in Peoria, Ill.
Big Ten Team Standings
1. Michigan State, 26
2. Wisconsin, 55
3. Michigan, 93
4. Ohio State, 127
5. Minnesota, 139
6. Indiana, 159
7. Penn State, 174
8. Purdue, 241
9. Illinois, 252
10. Northwestern, 268
11. Iowa, 300
12. Rutgers, 328
13. Nebraska, 347
14. Maryland, 445
Gopher Finishes
16. Liz Berkholtz, 20:31.5
18. Becca Dyson, 20:37.5
30. Kaila Urick, 20:52.2
35. Danielle Anderson, 21:06.5
43. Haley Johnson, 21:14.6
67. Kate Bucknam, 21:42.5
70. Jamie Piepenburg, 21:44.6
86. Bailey Ness, 22:07.8
95. Ashlie Decker, 22:29.1
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Players Mentioned
