Wolverine Women Qualify for 20th-Straight NCAA Championships
11/13/2021 5:00:00 PM
// Kyle Terwillegar
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — For the 20th consecutive season, the University of Michigan women’s cross country team will be competing at the NCAA Cross Country Championships.
The No. 12-ranked Wolverine women were announced during the NCAA’s selection show on Saturday (Nov. 13) as at-large qualifiers to the 2021 edition of the national meet, which will be held next Saturday (Nov. 20) in Tallahassee, Fla.
Michigan was third in a hotly contested NCAA Great Lakes Regional on Friday (Nov. 12), narrowly missing an automatic berth to nationals by 12 points behind Wisconsin. The Wolverines used a strong final kilometer to overcome rival Michigan State for third.
Despite not earning the automatic berth, the Wolverines returned to nationals for the 20th straight year and the 28th time in the past 30 seasons. The streak of 20 in a row is the third-longest active streak in the nation.
The process for deciding at-large berths comes down to the accumulation of head-to-head victories up to and including the regional meet over teams that qualified for nationals.
Michigan accumulated enough head-to-head victories in a low-profile regular season slate — including over automatic qualifiers Syracuse and Wisconsin — to secure the at-large berth. At the Big Ten Championships, the Wolverines finished fourth in a race that was decided by less than 15 points between the top four teams.
Next Saturday’s NCAA Championships for the women will be run at 10:20 a.m. at the Apalachee Regional Park Cross Country Course live on ESPNU. The women’s race will be followed by the men’s race at 11:10 a.m., which will feature the Michigan men.
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