TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Wisconsin women's cross country's Alicia Monson continued her historic season on Friday as the junior won the 2018 NCAA Great Lakes Regional and led the No. 11 Badgers to an automatic spot at next week's NCAA championships in Madison.

The Badgers punched their ticket to the national championships at the Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course after finishing runner-up on Friday with 82 points. Michigan, coming off of a Big Ten team title, won the team championship with 46 points and sported three runners in the top-ten.

Wisconsin edged Michigan State, who beat them two weeks ago at the Big Ten Championship, to earn their best team finish at the regional qualifying meet since 2014.

Monson ran the 6K race at the Lavern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in 20 minutes, 13.4 seconds. She is the first Badger to win the NCAA Great Lakes Region since 2001 when Bethany Brewster won the regional meet.

Monson dueled with All-American Anna Rohrer of Notre Dame for a majority of the race as Monson took the lead with less than two kilometers to go to en route to the victory. It marks the fourth time Monson has won a race this year after winning the Big Ten championships two weeks ago, the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational in late September and UW's season-opening race in early September. 

Junior Amy Davis, who hung tight with the lead pack for most of the race, finished in 11th place on the day with a 6K time of 20:48.3 seconds.

Senior Shaelyn Sorensen and Alissa Niggemann also finished in the top-25 for Wisconsin. Sorensen, the fifth-year senior, had a time of 20:56.2 which helped her to an 18th place finish. Niggemann followed closely behind her, taking 25th place and finishing with a time of 21:03.9. 

Lucinda Crouch, the freshman from Australia, had another impressive outing for the Badgers. She rounded out the scoring for Wisconsin and took 27th place at the meet with a time of 21:05.9.

Rachel Werking and Kristen Garcia also competed for the Cardinal and White at the regional meet on Friday. Werking crossed the line with a 6K time of 22:12.9 while freshman Garcia finished not far behind her in 22:22.6.

Notes to Know
- Monson's win marks the 11th time that a Badger has won an individual NCAA Great Lakes Region title.
- This marks the third-straight year the Badgers have advanced to the NCAA Championships under head coach Jill Miller and the 34th time UW has advanced to the big dance.
- Thanks to their top-25 finishes, Monson, Davis, Sorensen and Niggemann all earned USTFCCCA all-region honors.
- UW will host the women's NCAA Championship for the first time in program history after the UW men hosted the NCAA meet in 1978.

Straight from the Course
Head Coach Jill Miller
On team finishing second:
"It feels great to get the automatic bid going into next weekend but our goal was to come out here, stay a little bit relaxed, and run as a group and advance through. I'm really proud of the effort and I thought they did very well. Some minor tweaks going into next week but we're excited to get the auto bid for next weekend."

On Alicia's race:
"I thought she looked fantastic out there today. We certainly wanted to find an element of control with the NCAA Championship being next week. She did a great job, she was confident and controlled out there. I'm really proud and even more excited to see her run next week."

On the team heading into NCAA's:
"We wanted to gain some confidence back out here today after the Big Ten meet. The Big Ten is incredibly deep, very competitive. It looks like we should get five teams in the national meet. We'll see tomorrow but the goal is the championship. With that said, it's still great to come out here and be second and feel some confidence coming off of it. But our bigger goal is to recover and be ready to go."

Alicia Monson:
On the regional race:
"Overall, I think going into this race, any team that was looking to race at nationals, the mindset was to stay controlled. This race wasn't really like very hyped up. We kind of just went out there and did our job. Anna did a great job of leading it the whole way. At the end, I just felt like it was good, it was controlled and it was time to take it."

On helping team advance to NCAA:
"It was a huge day for our team. We were a little bit disheartened after, still a great finish at Big Ten meet but our team expects a lot of ourselves. I think everyone performed the way they should have today. We stayed relaxed, had fun, and everyone did what they were supposed to do today. It was a great finish for everyone."

On racing at home for a national championship:
"It is huge. This opportunity doesn't come around often. I know that our advantage is that we have so many people from Wisconsin coming to watch and to cheer us on. Just knowing our home course and knowing that we have so many supporters around is going to give us that little bit of extra energy that we need for the day at Nationals."

Up Next:
The 2018 NCAA Cross Country Championships will be held next Saturday at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course back home in Madison, Wisconsin. The women's race begins at 10:45 a.m. CT with the men's race to follow at 11:45 a.m.

Parking and admission information for the 2018 NCAA Cross Country Championships can be found here. 

2018 NCAA Great Lakes Regional
Friday, November 9, 2018
Lavern Gibson Cross Country Course | Terre Haute, Ind.
Team Scores
1. Michigan – 46
2. Wisconsin – 82
3. Michigan State -89
4. Notre Dame – 100
5. Indiana – 137

Wisconsin Individuals
1. Alicia Monson – 20:13.4
11. Amy Davis - 20:48.3
18. Shaelyn Sorensen – 20:56.2
25. Alissa Niggemann – 21:03.9
27. Lucinda Crouch – 21:05.9
82. Rachel Werking – 22:12.9
94. Kristen Garcia – 22:22.6