Women’s cross country head coach Karen Harvey said that everything happens for a reason. That’s how she approached her team’s tie for second place at the Regional Meet in Iowa City on Saturday.

Because only the top-two finishing teams can automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind., on Nov. 21, a tie-breaker was used to determine who would qualify between Illinois and Minnesota.

The tie-breaker favored Minnesota’s finishers in second and third places, compared to the Illini’s in seventh and 13th places. First-place Oklahoma State had four runners in the top-20 and finished with 71 points. Illinois and Minnesota each had 90 points.

The Illini, hoping to earn an automatic bid to Nationals, had to wait until early Sunday evening to hear whether they were one of the 13 teams to receive at-large bids.

Because of its second-place finish at the Big Ten meet, strong record and fifth-place ranking for much of the year in the FinishLynx National Poll, the team easily qualified. They earned the first at-large team bid.

The Illinois runners, who were hoping to battle for a first-place finish, had poor days, Harvey said.

Harvey is confident, though, that her team will be able to get back on track.

“This is not the end,” she said. “Everyone will remember what happens next Monday (at Nationals), that’s all that matters. Things happen, and this team needed this.”

The Illini were led by juniors Cassie Hunt and Stephanie Simms who finished in seventh and 13th places overall, with times of 21:06 and and 21:24.

Sophomore Katie Coppin, who Harvey described as one of the bright spots in Saturday’s race, finished with a time of 21:39 in 19th place.

“Katie Coppin had a heck of a race,” Harvey said. “If you would have told me at the beginning of the year that she would have been my most consistent performer, I would not have believed you. She is my most consistent performer; she is a rock.”

Coppin said she had mixed feelings about the race after watching her teammates.

“I was really happy with my race, but at the same time, it was bittersweet, seeing my teammates unhappy.”

The freshmen duo of Big Ten Freshman of the Year Katie Engel and Liz Mengyan rounded out the top five for the Illini. Engel and Mengyan finished with times of 21:55 and 22:01, in 24th and 27th places, respectively.

“Mengyan stepped up into the fifth spot, which had been lacking; this week it was the freshmen,” Harvey said.

The first four Illini finishers received All-Region honors, while the team tied its highest regional showing from both 1984 and 2004.

Harvey said that in order to prepare for the National Meet, the team needs to get back to training again.

They took a day off on Sunday to regroup themselves. The Illini, Coppin said, will be looking to make sure the work they put in throughout the season will not have been in vain.

“The biggest thing we’ve all talked about since the beginning of the season, the brutal workouts and all the miles, we didn’t do that for nothing,” Coppin said.

“It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. Fortunately, we have one last chance to go out there.”