By Adam Hensley
In the last meet of the 2016 season, Iowa’s cross-country teams rebounded from subpar Big Ten performances in the NCAA Midwest Regional Championships on Nov. 11.
The men placed 11th and the women 17th.
Seniors Ben Anderson and Tess Wilberding commanded their respective units in their final cross-country races of their careers.
“We’re a lot happier,” Anderson said. “Finishing last in the Big Ten definitely left a sour taste in our mouths; 11th in the region, we’ll take it.”
Anderson’s 44th-place finish was Iowa’s only top-50 finish; however, sophomore Ian Eklin (62nd), senior Anthony Gregorio (78th), freshman Nathan Mylenek (84th), and Bailey Hesse-Withbroe (97th) all snagged top-100 finishes.
The men (who ranked 14th in the latest regional poll) managed to topple three teams that ranked ahead of them in the Midwest: No. 11 Wichita State, No. 12 St. Louis, and No. 13 Nebraska.
Oklahoma State completed a five-peat at regionals, winning with only 64 points. Tulsa (89), Illinois (113), Iowa State (120), and Bradley (135) rounded out the top five.
Illinois, one team in particular that flew under the radar for most of championship season, shot up in the final standings, improving on its 7th place ranking before the meet.
Overall, Tulsa’s Luke Traynor edged out Oklahoma State’s Joshua Thompson by 0.3 seconds to win the meet.
“We had a distance favorable to several of our top runners,” Iowa coach Randy Hasenbank said. “Going 10,000 meters is really good for Ben Anderson, Anthony Gregorio, and Ian Eklin. Those guys are really good long-distance runners. We never got the team to full strength this year. The entire lineup competed very well.”
For a team missing two of the top three runners, Iowa fared better than expected. Junior Michael Melchert and sophomore Daniel Soto both sat out the regional meet with injuries.
“Our goal was to be patient the first lap, let other teams make some mistakes and see if we could work our way through the field,” Hasenbank said. “I think they did that. A lot of teams went out too hard, blew up, and we ran through them to improve our lot as the race went on.”
The men ended with their third top-12 finish in the past six seasons.
On the women’s side of competition, Wilberding became the third runner since 2000 to lead the Hawkeyes in every meet in a single season.
“I didn’t feel as fresh as I wanted to for some reason, but I raced tough — I was happy,” she said.
Following Wilberding’s lead, sophomore Andrea Shine (90th), junior Madison Waymire (96th), and Lauren Opatrny (102nd) landed the top-four places for Iowa.
Juniors Kelly Breen (118th), Marta Bote Gonzalez (140th), and freshman Claire Dupuis (144th) concluded the top seven scoring spots.
Missouri and Oklahoma State finished with only 6 points separating them in the Tigers’ first-place finish. Iowa State, which at one point in the 6,000-meters had three runners in the top nine, finished third.
With the season finale taking place at the Ashton Cross-Country Course, the team looked forward to competing a year in advance.
“Even last year, we talked about racing here for this race,” Wilberding said. “It was kind of surreal, pretty exciting. [Racing at home] kind of made us less nervous because we knew the course better than anyone out there.”
