Sept. 22, 2011
Meet Information | Course Map
TOLEDO, Ohio- Baylor's women's cross country team will send its top runners to face an impressive field at the Toledo Inter-Regional Bubble Buster on Friday at 5:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. CT in Toledo, Ohio. The 4,000-meter course will be set through Ottawa Park in Toledo.
The Lady Bears, ranked third in the NCAA South Central Region, join an eight-team field that features all regionally-ranked squads. Two of the eight are nationally-ranked as well, including meet-host Toledo at29th in the nation and second in the Great Lakes Region, and West Virginia at 19th in the nation and fifth in the Mid-Atlantic Region.
Arkansas (No. 2 South Central Region), Columbia (No. 4 Northeast Region), Eastern Michigan (No. 11 Great Lakes Region) and San Francisco (No. 6 West Region) round out the field. Arkansas, Columbia and San Francisco each received votes in the most recent national rankings.
Most of the Baylor top-seven will be back on the course for just the second time this season, resting the past two weeks after winning the season-opening Bear Twilight Invitational. Baylor swept the top four spots individually, along with five of the top eight, to finish with 17 points, 58 better than second-place Texas State.
Individually, senior Cate Westenhover topped the field with a 4,000-meter time of 14 minutes, 6.3 seconds, while a trio of freshman all finished within the next 20 seconds. Rachel Johnson was just seven seconds back, while Bree Schrader was 10 seconds behind Westenhover, and Erin Hegarty was a mere 17 seconds back.
Senior Kristen Hanselka and redshirt freshman Mariah Kelly have each collected two top-10 finishes this season, and sophomore Robyn Bennett has been in the top 15 in both of her races.
Baylor's crew will have a chance to score valuable victories over other regionally-ranked teams in order to position itself for a bid to the NCAA Championship later this season.
The Baylor men will have the weekend off after competing in meets on three consecutive weekends.
