Michigan
NCAA Great Lakes Regional
Wolverine Weekly: NCAA Great Lakes Regional News and Notes
11/6/2018 2:30:00 PM | Women's Cross Country
» Michigan is going for its fourth consecutive NCAA Great Lakes Region title while looking to sew up its 17th-straight berth into the NCAA Championships.
» Led by All-Big Ten honorees Avery Evenson, Anne Forsyth and Hannah Meier, the Wolverines will battle one of the nation's deepest region fields with four other national top-20 squads in contention.
THIS WEEK
Friday, Nov. 9 -- at NCAA Great Lakes Regional (Terre Haute, Ind.), 11:15 a.m.
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With its Big Ten team title now safely defended, the No. 7 University of Michigan women's cross country team has turned its attention to the NCAA postseason, which begins Friday (Nov. 9) with the Great Lakes Regional in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Entering as the three-time defending conference champions after a strong Big Ten victory two weekends ago, the Wolverines look to extend their streak of regional team titles to four straight and six of the last seven and, in doing so, stretch its streak of qualifying for the NCAA Championships to 17 consecutive seasons.
Led by All-Big Ten honorees Avery Evenson, Anne Forsyth and Hannah Meier, and bolstered by one of the deepest lineups in the nation, Michigan aims to keep those streaks alive on the familiar grounds of the LaVern Gibson Championship Course in rural Terre Haute -- the site of last year's regional and Michigan's one-point national runner-up finish in 2016 -- as they race six kilometers (3.73 miles) at 11:15 a.m.
No team since Wisconsin from 1996-2000 has claimed four consecutive Great Lakes Region team titles, and only Stanford (25 years) and Michigan State (17 years) have longer active nationals streaks than does Michigan (16 years).
While the regional team title is at stake against many of the same competitors who challenged the Wolverines at Big Tens -- No. 10 Michigan State, No. 11 Wisconsin and No. 14 Indiana -- as well as ACC runner-up No. 18 Notre Dame, the real top prize for those squads is automatic advancement to the NCAA Championships in Madison, Wisconsin, eight days later on Saturday, Nov. 18.
Only the top two schools in the team standings on Friday will be guaranteed berths to Madison, while teams finishing third-or-lower are subject to the at-large berth process. Of the 31-team nationals field, 18 teams will earn their way to Wisconsin by way of automatic berths from the nine regions, with the 13 remaining slots open for at-large qualification.
The Wolverines have advanced automatically as a top-two finisher all but three times during their current 16-year qualification streak to NCAAs, with nine regional victories during that span.
Doing so again in 2018 will require another strong performance against what is shaping up to be the deepest of any of the nine regional meets around the country on Friday. The Wolverines are one of five teams ranked top-20 nationally from the Great Lakes; only the West region matches that depth.
Michigan State gave Michigan a battle up until the end at the Big Ten Championships in a 57-75 win for the Wolverines, while Wisconsin and Indiana were not much farther back with 89 and 110 points in third and fifth, respectively.
Notre Dame was the runner-up in the ACC by a single point, and the Wolverines also will have to contend with neighboring MAC champion Eastern Michigan.
The Lineup
Teams are allowed to field a lineup of seven runners from among a declared NCAA postseason roster of as many as 12 runners. The first five runners across the line will combine to constitute a team's score, while the next two are score "displacers" that serve to boost the scores of opposing teams.
In addition to the aforementioned frontrunners Evenson, Forsyth and Meier, the lineup could also include, in alphabetical order, Claire Borchers, Rachel Coleman, Camille Davre, Alice Hill, Kathryn House, Jessi Larson, Haley Meier, Faith Reynolds and Anna West.
• Just as it was throughout the regular season, Michigan's depth continued to be its biggest asset in its Big Ten victory. Not only were the Wolverines the only team with three All-Big Ten honorees, it was also the only team with five in the top-20 and six in the top-25. Michigan was able to get seven runners through the finish line in less time -- 36.7 seconds between them -- than runner-up Michigan State -- 37.3 seconds -- was able to get five through.
• Emerging as Michigan's "secret weapon" at the Big Ten meet was the true first-year Wolverine Forsyth, who wound up eighth overall as the conference's Freshman of the Year for her efforts. Forsyth is a legacy Wolverine, as parents Ian and Jessica (Kluge) Forsyth both were standout runners at Michigan. Coincidentally, mother Jessica was eighth at the Big Ten meet as a senior in 1994 to lead Michigan to a third-straight conference team title.
• Coming off a third-place effort at Big Tens, Evenson is looking more and more like the woman who finished 18th for All-America honors at the 2016 NCAA Championships. She has finished no lower than eighth overall in her four races this season, and her strength over the final two kilometers at Pre-Nats was surpassed only by the top two finishers -- both individual NCAA title contenders -- in the race.
• Hannah Meier continues to excel in her first injury-free cross country season since 2016, with 11th-place and 12th-place finishes at Big Tens and Pre-Nationals, respectively, planting her firmly in the All-America conversation.
• Borchers continues to be the rock at the center of the Michigan lineup, with her 19th-place finish at Big Tens as Michigan's No. 4 runner marking her 12th consecutive race as a top-five runner for Michigan. Her string of performances so far in 2018 hue very closely to her 2017 arc, when she was 15th at regionals and 98th at NCAAs.
The Team, The Team, The Team
• Led by reigning Great Lakes Region and Big Ten Coach of the Year Mike McGuire, Michigan held steady at No. 1 in the NCAA Great Lakes Regional Rankings (Oct. 29) and No. 7 in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) National Coaches' Poll (Oct. 30).
• This marks the eighth year in a row Michigan has been ranked top-10 nationally at some point during the season. Only one other team in the country (Stanford, 24 consecutive years) has a longer active top-10 streak than the Wolverines.
• This week marks the 139th consecutive edition of the National Coaches' Poll that has included Michigan in its top-30, a streak surpassed only by Stanford. Among Big Ten teams, Penn State is next on the list with 31 consecutive appearances.
• No Big Ten team is ranked higher nationally than Michigan. Behind Michigan are No. 10 Michigan State, No. 11 Wisconsin, No. 13 Penn State, No. 14 Indiana and No. 23 Minnesota.
• This marks the 16th year in a row Michigan earned a top-30 national rank to start the season. Of those 16 years, Michigan -- No. 13 to start 2018 -- has gone on to outperform their preseason rank at the NCAA Championships in nine of those seasons.
The Course
Name: LaVern Gibson Championship Course
Distance: Six Kilometers (3.73 miles)
Take an inside look at the #NCAAXC Great Lakes Regional 6K course in @XCTownUSA the women are going to run on Friday as they go for FOUR regional team titles in a row and their 17th-straight NCAA Championships berth #GoBlue pic.twitter.com/79wd732yWd
— Michigan Cross Country / Track & Field (@UMichTrack) November 6, 2018
A Look Ahead
Saturday, Nov. 17 -- at NCAA Championships (Madison, Wis.)
Players Mentioned
