TERRE HAUTE -- It didn't accomplish quite what it wanted to, but the Ball State women's cross country team has nothing to be ashamed of.
The first Cardinal squad to advance to the NCAA Championships placed 27th out of 31 teams with 602 points. BSU entered the 6,000-meter race ranked 25th in the nation, and coach Sue Parks had set the top 20 as a "reasonable goal."
"I haven't seen the results yet," Parks said soon after the race, "but it didn't look like our best day, probably not as good as regionals. You can't afford to be the least bit off in this meet."
At regionals last week Ball State placed fifth behind a 14-second pack. In this race at the Wabash Valley Sports Center, the gap between the first and last scoring runners was 129.
Senior Stacey Ritz set the Cards' pace by crossing the line 77th in 21:17.3. Sophomore Jill Scully was 106th (21:32.8), junior Crystal Meeks 123rd (21:50.4), senior Katie Nowak 138th (22:08.6) and sophomore Sarah Huddleston 168th (22:08.6). Sophomore Aubrey Gafford (202nd, 22:39.8) and freshman Nicole Hartford (206th, 22:53.3) rounded out the BSU runners.
"We got spread out a lot more, and that's an easy thing to do with the big crowd," Parks said. "It didn't look like we were high enough at the beginning, and at this level of competition is very hard to play catch-up."
There are some bright spots to draw from this meet. Meeks set a personal best and five of the seven runners will definitely return next year to take another shot at it.
"Whatever we finish we'll learn from it," Parks added.
"We really didn't know what to expect (being our first time)," Meeks said. "I think we did a pretty good job. The experience will definitely help. We've already talked about it and we can't wait (for next year)."
Although Ritz is a fifth-year senior, she could also return in 2003 if she receives a medical redshirt from the NCAA.
"I'd hoped to do a little better, but the competition was great," said Ritz, who took 17th last year and received All-American honors. "I would've really liked to make All-America again, but it just didn't work out today."
North Carolina's Shalane Flanagan set a new course record (19:36) to take the individual crown, while Brigham Young totaled 85 points for the team title. Mid-American Conference champion Brianna Shook (Toledo) finished 24th to earn All-American honors.
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