Melissa Darling led the CMU women’s cross country team to a fourth-place finish Saturday at the Mid-American Conference cross country championships in Athens, Ohio.

Darling, a junior, finished seventh (22 minutes, 35 seconds) overall, earning first team all-conference honors.

“She ran great,” said cross country director Willie Randolph. “She was ruthless from the beginning and kept pressing.”

The team scored 116 points with a team time of 1:57:11.2, less than seven seconds behind third-place Akron. CMU had an individual team average of 23:26.2.

That is the second consecutive year the Chippewas finished in fourth place, out of 12 MAC schools.

Behind Darling was sophomore Holly Anderson (16th, 23:06), who missed the MAC second team by four seconds in her first conference meet. Anderson also finished second on the team at Pre-Nationals on Oct. 17.

“She’s been pressing a lot during practices,” Randolph said. “She never gave up and worked as hard as she could.”

Completing the scoring for CMU was junior Kylee Kubacki (23rd, 23:35), senior Emily Van Wasshenova (33rd, 23:52) and junior Raeanne Lohner (37th, 24:01).

Sophomore Charnele Lyons (41st, 24:04) cracked the top 50, while junior Danielle Dakroub (59th, 24:30) struggled following a strong first half to the season.

“It was a great team effort, especially considering how young they are,” Randolph said.
Miami (Ohio) won its second consecutive conference title.

The team competes at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional Championships on Nov. 14.

E-mail the author: Aaron McMann