The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Miami Insider: Women’s cross country team solid

High school sports results for May 26
5/26/12
Reds' six-game winning streak broken
5/26/12
Annual Warrior Soccer Classic kicks off today
5/26/12
Dragons' rally falls short against Lansing
5/26/12
WSU baseball ousted from tournament
5/26/12
> More sports headlines

2:05 AM Wednesday, October 13, 2010

The Miami University women’s cross country team is on a mission this fall to earn a spot in the NCAA Championship meet. Rachel Patterson is leading the way.

Literally.

The senior from Rochester, Mich., has been the RedHawks’ top finisher in all three races she has run and has been named Mid-American Conference Runner of the Week all three times.

Patterson has won two of those races, obliterating the course record by nearly 12 seconds at the All-Ohio Championship in Cedarville in her most recent meet Oct. 1, and on Saturday will lead the charge at the prestigious Penn State National Meet.

“Last year, we really wanted to make nationals and had a chance to do it,” she said. “We just didn’t have a good mind-set. This year, all the girls have really geared up for it.”

Miami has competed in four meets this season, winning the Dayton Flyer 5K Challenge and the All-Ohio Championship. The RedHawks finished second at their own Miami Invitational despite resting their top seven runners and also ran in Michigan State’s Spartan Invitational, where no team scores were kept.

Still, Miami had an impressive showing in East Lansing. Patterson was second among individuals, and the RedHawks had five runners — also including senior Amanda Mirochna, juniors Maggie Bingham and Kelley Miller, and freshman Kate Carter — finish in the top 30 in a field of 271.

“We definitely have a shot (at nationals),” Patterson said. “It’s not going to be easy. We’ll have to run the race of our lives (at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional, scheduled for Nov. 11 in her hometown of Rochester).”

The NCAA Championship meet is Nov. 22.

Patterson missed much of her junior season after finding out she had run the previous summer with two stress fractures in her leg.

“I should have been on crutches,” she said.

Now Patterson, the daughter of Theresa and Michael Patterson, seems to be on jets and is running with more confidence.

“In the past I’ve been kind of afraid (of the competition),” she said. “Now I’m relying on my teammates around me. We’re running in a pack and not worrying about the other people on the course.”

Volleyball hits road

The volleyball team will try to build on its 3-1 victory over Ohio last weekend with a pair of road matches at Eastern Michigan (17-6, 4-2 Mid-American Conference) on Friday and Central Michigan (7-11, 1-5 MAC) on Saturday.

Miami (7-12, 2-4) had lost six out of its previous seven matches before beating Ohio behind Colleen Loftus (12 kills and 12 digs) and Michele Metzler, Amy Raseman and Hamilton’s Christina Menche (each with 11 kills).

Contact this

reporter

at (513) 820-2197 or pconrad@coxohio.com.

MIAMI INSIDER

PETE CONRAD

Share this article