Trine Women Place Third at MIAA Championship

Trine Women Place Third at MIAA Championship

KALAMAZOO, MICH.  --  The Trine University women's cross country team had three runners finish with All-Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association honors, including two first-team award winners, following the running of the annual MIAA Championship that was hosted by Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Mich.

As a team, the Thunder placed third out of nine teams with an overall score of 78 points.  Hope (Mich.) College won the team title with 32 points and Calvin (Mich.) College was second at 57 points.

The top-16 individuals in the event garnered All-Conference accolades with the top-eight earning first-team recognition and the next eight second-team honors.  Trine had two competitors finish in the top-eight, including sophomore Evonne Bultemeyer (Fort Wayne, Ind./Homestead) who placed third overall in a field of 119 runners with a time of 22:26.3.  Senior Lacie Piekarski (Spring Lake, Mich./Spring Lake) also earned first-team All-MIAA by finishing sixth after completing the 6k course in a mark of 23:02.9.

Sophomore Elizabeth Lohman (Fort Wayne, Ind./Carroll) earned second-team All-MIAA by posting a time of 23:26.2 which was good enough for 14th place overall.

Fellow sophomore Ruthie Luebcke (Crown Point, Ind./Crown Point) had the fourth quickest time for Trine at 24:37.1 and placed 35th.  Freshman Chloe Brittain (Wheeler, Mich./Breckenridge) finished a little over 14 seconds back of Luebcke with a time of 24:51.8 to finish in 41st place overall.

Sophomores Stacy Dibley (Bristol, Ind./Elkhart Central) and Miranda Coombs (Lexington, Mich./Croswell-Lexington) rounded out the potential team score qualifying times with marks of 25:24.7 and 27:27.0, respectively.

In addition, freshmen Madison Howard (Stockbridge, Mich./Stockbridge) and Logan Sawyer (McCordsville, Ind./Lawrence Central) also competed and finished back-to-back with times of 28:02.4 and 28:13.1. 

"Our women's team ran a FANTASTIC race today!" said Head Coach Zach Raber.  "We were third behind the top-two teams in our region. For the first time in school history, we had three women earn All-Conference and two with first-team honors. The difference today was that we were willing to attack the course and take some risks. They did very well!  

Up next, the Trine women will compete in the NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional Meet which will be held on Saturday, Nov. 10 at the Blue River Cross Country Course in Shelbyville, Ind.  The women's race is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m.