Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
NCAA Midwest Regional Championships
Kocha Leads Northwestern at NCAA Regional Championships
11/15/2013 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country & Track
Nov. 15, 2013
NCAA Midwest Regional Results: Individual 
| Team Standings
AMES, Iowa -- In what was likely the final meet of her collegiate career, senior Libby Kocha (Burlington, Wis./Burlington) recorded a career-best 6K time of 20:57.3 at the NCAA Cross Country Midwest Regional Championships Friday at Iowa State University. Taking advantage of ideal race conditions in Ames, Kocha sped to an impressive 18th-place to earn the first All-Region honor of her career.
Kocha's finish, coupled with another personal-best effort by freshman Andrea Ostenso (21:21.9, 33rd place), allowed the Wildcats to place ninth out of 30 squads in the team standings -- matching their USTFCCCA regional ranking entering the meet.
Host Iowa State coasted to a regional team championship while Minnesota joined the Cyclones in earning automatic team bids to the national championship event in Terre Haute. With 275 points, Northwestern finished only five points behind eighth-place Illinois while topping fellow Big Ten members Nebraska (20th) and Iowa (21st).
The meet also automatically qualifies the top four individuals from a non-advancing team to the national meet; Kocha was the 10th such runner across the finish line on Friday.
Ostenso was followed in the Wildcats lineup by another freshman, Elena Miller, with her own career-best 6K time of 21:49.9, and senior Julia Buford one second later (21:50.4). Northwestern's scoring was completed by freshman Jena Pianin, who checked in with a time of 22:02.1 in her debut at the event.
Download complete individual and team results in PDF form linked at the top of the page.
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