Women's cross country seeks first title since 2000.
The women’s cross country team brings experience to the MAC Championships Saturday despite lacking a large senior presence.
The team, seeking its first MAC title since 2000, returns five runners who competed in last year’s conference meet, where CMU finished fourth out of 12 schools.
“It always brings a certain level of experience by having people returning from a MAC Championship,” said director Willie Randolph. “(It) just brings that much more confidence.”
Junior Melissa Darling finished first on the team Oct. 17 at Pre-Nationals and will lead the Chippewas into Athens, Ohio. As a sophomore, Darling placed second on the team and 27th overall (18 minutes, five seconds) in the conference meet.
Senior Emily Van Wasshenova, in her third MAC Championships appearance, will likely race for the final time this weekend. Van Wasshenova placed 46th (18:24) last year and 80th (23:06) in 2006.
In addition, juniors Danielle Dakroub (33rd last year at MAC Championships, 18:15), Raenanne Lohner (37th, 18:18) and Brittany Dixon (45th, 18:24) all bring previous conference experience to the team this weekend.
“It’s very helpful (to have returners); they know exactly what the MAC meet is all about,” said assistant coach Matt Kaczor. “We’re just hoping that we keep things together, and that will help this team out a lot.”
The rest
Sophomore Holly Anderson, who put in a second-place finish (22:36) at Pre-Nationals and continues to establish herself as the No. 3 runner on the team, and sophomore Rachael Wessel will run their first MAC Championships this weekend.
The women will begin their 6K race at 11 a.m. Saturday.
“We’re more relaxed and confident going into (this weekend),” Darling said. “Last year, we were kind of pulling everything together. This year, we have it together.”
The team is No. 15 in the Great Lakes Region, according to the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Association, heading into this weekend. It is its first ranking of the season.
The Chippewas are preceded in the rankings by respective MAC schools Toledo (6), Miami (10) and Akron (11).
