The Spartans brought the Michigan weather with them this weekend to Lexington, Kentucky, home of the 2014 NIRCA Great Lakes Regional meet. Last year, thirty-four Spartans ran the Regional meet that we hosted 20 minutes away from campus. This year, a record-breaking thirty-nine Spartan runners traveled 6 hours to Kentucky to toe the line for regionals.

The day started with the women’s race at 10am. The Spartan women fought through snow and heavy winds for a close 4th place team finish, missing third by just 2 points to NIRCA newcomers Notre Dame. Despite the disappointing bump off the podium, the Spartan women still performed well within one of the toughest NIRCA regions. Leading the Lady Spartans was Steph Schmidt who came in third overall in 23:39 and was All-Region. Missing our number two Spartan runner Alex Dutcher, Steph was followed by our strong 2-4 pack of freshmen Nicole Mosteller (24:28, PR, 14th) and Erin Zimmer (24:42, 17th), and junior Tarah Thompson (24:58, 23rd). Following up to round off the weekend’s top 8 runners were veteran Val Morel (25:52), newcomer sophomore Sarah Wallace (25:54, PR),  junior Christina Casali (26:11), and senior Megan McNitt (26:17), who did a great job working together as teammates throughout the race. Newcomers Elle White and Jessica Siegler followed with another pair of PR’s. Making their debut in the 6k were Natalie Whise (PR) and Sharayah Macomber (PR), followed by Annie Grove (PR) and Katy Gwizdala who finished together. Upperclassmen Emma Winn, Jessica Plemmons (PR), and Aliza Weiss (PR) rounded off the race for the Lady Spartans. In case you lost count, that’s 9 PR’s out of 17 runners facing rolling hills, harsh winds, and freezing temps! Not bad, ladies.