Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
NCAA Midwest Regional Championships
Sophomores Spearhead Northwestern's Showing at NCAA Regionals
11/14/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country & Track
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2014 NCAA Midwest Regional Championships Newman Golf Course • Peoria, Ill. • NU's Place: 11th/32 teams  | Team |
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PEORIA, Ill. -- Northwestern sophomores Andrea Ostenso and Jena Pianin each charged to All-Midwest Region honors by placing 15th and 16th, respectively, in Friday's NCAA Midwest Regional Championships hosted by Bradley University.
The occasion marks the third time in four years that two Wildcats raced their way to All-Midwest Region accolades.
Ostenso shattered her previous 6K personal best by crossing in 20:42, while Pianin was just off her hip in 20:43.4. Ostenso was running as high as 10th in the pack at the midway point in the race and worked in tandem with Pianin to maintain her pace en route to the 15th-place showing.
Ostenso's effort chopped nearly 40 seconds off her time recorded at the Big Ten Championships on Nov. 2.
Northwestern, which entered the meet ranked 12th in the region, placed 11th in the team standings Friday (367 points), falling just short of eclipsing Illinois but besting such programs as Wichita State (12th), Iowa (13th) and Kansas (14th). Iowa State earned the regional team championship for the fifth consecutive year.
Following Ostenso and Pianin, junior Elena Barham was the next Wildcats runner across the line, placing 87th with a time of 21:34. Classmate Camille Blackman was fourth for Northwestern in 21:50, followed by freshman Isabel Seidel with an effort of 22:15 to round out NU's list of point-scorers.
Runners from more than 13 different NCAA conferences competed Friday for a shot at advancing to the NCAA Championships, with the top two teams and the top four individuals not on an advancing team earning invites to the national meet. On Friday, Minnesota joined Iowa State as the automatically advancing teams.
Complete team and individual results are linked in PDF format at the top of this release.
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