Women pleased with second place

STATE COLLEGE - A few years ago, No Fear clothing put out a popular series of t-shirts, one of which read "Second Place Is The First Loser."

This line would not apply to the Michigan women's cross country team, which finished second at the Big Ten Championships on Saturday at Penn State. Contrary to what the people at No Fear would think, the Wolverines were definitely not losers on this day.

The meet was won handily by fifth-ranked Wisconsin. Wisconsin was led by sophomore Erica Palmer, who blazed to victory in a season-best time of 16:46.93. Palmer, who finished second to Michigan's Katie McGregor a year ago, was not going to be denied this time around.

JESSICA JOHNSON/Daily Marcy Akard and the Michigan women's cross country team upset Michigan State and Minnesota at Saturday's Big Tens.

"From the beginning, I felt like this was my meet to win," Palmer said. "I looked back towards the end, and the next person (fellow teammate) Erin Aufderheide) was about 50 meters behind me."

Led by Palmer, Aufderheide, and sophomore Bethany Brewster, who finished third, Wisconsin tallied 25 points, while Michigan was second with 95 points. The 70-point margin of victory was one of the largest in championship history. Nevertheless, the Wolverines were ecstatic after the meet.

"We ran a lot better than we had been running recently," Michigan coach Mike McGuire said. "We've handled a lot of misfortune this year, and we really competed hard today."

As was the case all year, the Wolverines were led by junior Lisa Ouellet. Battling the Wisconsin runners the entire race, Ouellet finished seventh in a time of 17:31.27, en route to earning first-team all-Big Ten honors.

"I was dying towards the end, but I managed to hang in there," Ouellet said. "What I'm happiest about is the team's success. We really wanted it today, and we ran great."

In order to place highly at Big Tens, the Wolverines knew that they would need strong showings from runners other than Ouellet. Michigan got those performances from junior Katie Clifford and senior Elizabeth Kampfe, who finished 12th and 14th and earned second-team all-conference recognition.

"I've really wanted to improve every meet," Clifford said. "My first race here (the Spiked Shoe Invitational in September), I was the sixth-best runner on our team, but I was able to do a lot better this time out.

"Today, everyone just had their heads on straight, and the great thing is that we're only going to get better."

While acknowledging the dominance of the Badgers in general and Palmer in particular, McGuire was nevertheless very pleased with his team's performance and sounded optimistic about the rest of Michigan's season.

"Wisconsin is the fifth-ranked team, and they showed why today," McGuire said. "Palmer is just a tough runner and a real talent. If they can keep that team together, they're going to be very good.

"As far as we're concerned, this was the biggest meet on our schedule, and we were able to handle ranked teams like Minnesota and Michigan State. We've got two weeks until our next meet (NCAA regionals). We just have to use this result as a springboard into the rest of our season."

11-01-99