TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – It was a cold, wet, and muddy day at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course but the weather didn't stop the No. 11 Wisconsin women's cross country team from having an incredible race on Saturday morning.
Wisconsin's three standout seniors,
Alicia Monson,
Amy Davis and
Alissa Niggemann led the Badgers to a seventh-place team finish at the 2019 NCAA Championships. This is the third consecutive year the Badgers have finished in the top-10 at NCAAs and the team's highest finish in 13 years.
Senior
Alicia Monson finished second overall, UW's highest individual finisher since Sarah Disanza also took second in 2014. Monson led the chase pack trying to catch up to New Mexico's Weni Kelati but Kelati made a surge with 2,000 meters to go and ran away from the field. Kelati won the meet in 19 minutes, 47.5 seconds while Monson finished second in 19:57.1. Monson improved two spots after finishing fourth at the 2018 NCAA Championships. This was the sixth time Monson has earned NCAA All American honors in cross country and track.
Davis and Niggemann not far behind!
Davis stayed close to the chase pack for the entire 6000-meter race, placing 26th in 20 34.7. This is the second time Davis has earned NCAA All America honors, improving 41 spots from her junior NCAA championships finish.
Niggemann had an amazing final two kilometers, passing 29 runners to finish 52nd with a time of 20:58.7 seconds, finishing third for the Badgers. Niggemann improved 55 spots from last years championships where she was 107th.
The three Wisconsin seniors rose to the challenge and competed phenomenally for the Badgers at their final NCAA Cross Country Championship meet.
The Badgers also raced two sophomores and two freshman at the championships. In a field of 254 of the best runners in the country, sophomore
Lucinda Crouch finished 96th with a time of 21:14.5, true-freshman
Alexa Westley finished 139th in 21:32.5, redshirt freshman
Peyton Sippy finished 156th in 21:42.1, and sophomore
Kristen Garcia took 232nd with a time of 22:36.1.
No. 1 Arkansas won the meet with 96 points, placing two runners in the top 10. No. 3 BYU was team runner-up, placing three runners in the top 10 while No.2 Stanford rounded out the top three teams with 123 points. The Badgers finished seventh with 235 points, their best finish at NCAAs since 2006. Wisconsin was the second Big Ten team, finishing 26 points behind conference champion Michigan State.
All-Americans
Alicia Monson - 2nd
Amy Davis - 26th
Straight from the course
"Weini went a little later than I was expecting. I kind of thought she would go right from the gun but she didn't. So I was just trying to stay calm. When she went, she laid it down hard and I should have responded faster and looking back, I should have gone with her right away. It's a learning experience and she had an amazing race. My thought process was that I would come back but she laid the hammer down and just kept going. All and all it was an incredible race.
"The weather says it all. Its going to be a memorable day for me but I'm super happy with my cross country career and how far I've come in the past four years. I'm staying hungry."
-NCAA Championship runner-up Alicia Monson
"I'm just really proud of how these women all raced today. Seventh place is the highest the team's finished in awhile but I think more importantly our team as a whole ran the strongest last 2K that we've seen from this group all year long, which really shows that they were strong, confident and really were able to go out and execute on our race plan.
"Alicia has been incredible all year, she wanted to win and I think she's learning that she is capable of great things and that people are going to have to do great things to beat her. Very incredibly proud of her performance and it gives us some fuel for the fire for indoors and outdoors.
"I'm thrilled to be a Wisconsin Badger, this group is really special but I think we have eight women that came to race and seven that raced but we had almost the entire team come down. There was Wisconsin Badger flags all over that course today and that was very special, you didn't see that from other teams and I think the future is really bright for this group."
-
Head coach Mackenzie Wartenberger
| NCAA Championship Results |
| Team |
Score |
| 1. |
Arkansas |
96 |
| 2. |
BYU |
102 |
| 3. |
Stanford |
123 |
| 4. |
New Mexico |
168 |
| 5. |
NC State |
190 |
| 6. |
Michigan State |
209 |
| 7. |
Wisconsin |
235 |
| 8. |
Air Force |
259 |
| 9. |
Furman |
290 |
| 10. |
Colorado |
294 |
| 11. |
Washington |
296 |
| 12. |
Florida State |
308 |
| 13. |
Michigan |
395 |
| 14. |
Northern Arizona |
406 |
| 15. |
Notre Dame |
415 |
| 16. |
Utah |
471 |
| 17. |
Boise State |
474 |
| 18. |
Penn State |
482 |
| 19. |
Indiana |
509 |
| 20. |
Boston College |
514 |
| 21. |
Ole Miss |
541 |
| 22. |
Illinois |
549 |
| 23. |
Ohio State |
566 |
| 24. |
Villanova |
575 |
| 25. |
Tulsa |
584 |
| 26. |
Oregon |
618 |
| 27. |
Columbia |
624 |
| 28. |
Minnesota |
691 |
| 29. |
Cornell |
693 |
| 30. |
Texas |
713 |
| 31. |
Harvard |
787 |
