The women’s cross country team earned its best finish in the Big 12 Championship in 15 years on Saturday in Columbia, Mo., placing fifth overall. The men’s team faced some difficulties, but still managed to snag an eighth place finish.

Kansas faced tough competition, but the women never lost a step. They beat Baylor, a nationally ranked team in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association rankings. Three of the four teams that beat Kansas were also nationally ranked — Texas Tech, Colorado and Iowa State.

“The level of competition on both men and women’s side, nationally, is just tremendous for this conference,” said assistant coach Michael Whittlesey.

Senior Lauren Bonds finished first for the women in 10th place with a time of 21:46.52. Sophomore Rebeka Stowe finished second for Kansas. She ran a 22:35:07, finishing second for her team and placing 50 spots higher than last year. Behind her was sophomore Kara Windisch with a time of 22:53.19 and junior Amanda Miller with a time of 22.59.25 — good for 39th place.

“I think we ran great,” said Bonds. “We did everything we could have.”

In the last scoring position was senior Kellie Schneider, who finished with a time of 23:03.85 and had one of her strongest races of the season.

“Kellie Schneider had just a tremendous race,” Whittlesey said. “It was really a coming out party for her. She really bought into how good she could be and just competed extremely, extremely well.”

The men earned the same eighth-place finish as last year. Three runners fell during the race.

“It was a tough race,” sophomore Donny Wasinger said. “We came into today looking to kind of proves ourselves a little bit. It didn’t probably go as well as we had all hoped or as we planned, but it’s going to be a learning experience.”

Wasinger finished first for the men, with a time of 26:00.82 in 38th place. Senior Bret Imgrund and junior Dan Van Orsdel finished next for the Jayhawks with times of 26:03.15 and 26:23.33. Finishing out the scoring for the men were junior Nick Caprario and sophomore Austin Bussing.

The men’s and women’s teams will compete in regionals Nov. 14 in Springfield, Mo.

— Edited by Amanda Thompson