Senior Courtney Yaeger recorded one of the best individual performances of her career Sunday when she finished eighth overall at the Big Ten Championships in East Lansing, Mich.
The Illinois women’s cross-country team, on the other hand, didn’t run as well.
Before the Big Ten Championships, head coach Jeremy Rasmussen said the team’s goal was to finish in the conference’s top half. The Illini finished ninth overall despite being fifth about halfway through the meet.
“We’re obviously disappointed in our team place,” Rasmussen said. “It was there for us, and we just didn’t live up to the challenge and take advantage of it.”
Yaeger’s finish was a major improvement from her 87th-place finish at last year’s meet. Yaeger was named to the all-Big Ten second team after finishing the race in 20 minutes, 35 seconds, the fifth-fastest time in school history.
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“I think I ran about as well as I could have,” Yaeger said. “I ran a PR, and I came pretty close to my goals.”
When asked about her fifth-fastest time, Yaeger seemed surprised.
“Is that what it is?” Yaeger said. “I haven’t checked the record yet. But I’m glad my name is finally up there because I ran really hard.”
“Going from 87th place at the Big Ten Championships last year to eighth this year, no one did that, and that was huge for her.” Rasmussen said.
Every Illini finished the race in less than 23 minutes, with redshirt freshman Alyssa Schneider finishing second for the Illini and 22nd overall, with a time of 20:57. But some Illinois runners fell back in the second half of the race, Rasmussen said.
“We talked about before going into the race to put ourselves in position to race the race that we wanted to, and halfway through the race, we were in fifth place as a team, right in striking distance,” Rasmussen said.
“I’m not disappointed in the effort we put out today, we just couldn’t finish the race.”
Yaeger said the Illini will look at this race as a learning experience.
“We could have ran better, but I think that now we have something to prove,” Yaeger said.
Nicholas can be reached at [email protected] and @IlliniSportsGuy.
