Senior Lauren Bonds reached her goal of qualifying for nationals with a fifth-place finish at the Midwest Regional Championship Saturday.

In her first trip to nationals, Bonds will represent Kansas as the first women’s cross country runner to quality since 1994.

“When I first came in, I think my freshman year, I got 90th here,” Bonds said. “So to think even back then that I would qualify for nationals was just completely inconceivable. But I did it today. So I’m really, really excited. This has been one of my goals for a long time.”

Despite the relative ease with which Bonds seemed to finish, the race was anything but easy.

“It was a deceivingly hard course,” sophomore Donny Wasinger said. “The hills are long and gradual but then doing them four times when you come around it does wear on you a lot.”

The women’s team placed 10th out of 22 teams. Sophomore Kara Windisch finished second for Kansas after Bonds in 42nd place with a time of 21:56.5. Senior Kellie Schneider and sophomore Rebeka Stowe placed 63rd and 68th. Freshmen Tessa Turcotte and Kathleen Thompson finished out the scoring for the team, placing 95th and 144th, respectively. One of Kansas’ top runners, junior Amanda Miller, collapsed with about 400 meters left in the race.

“She put a hard effort and kind of ran herself into the ground and was unable to finish the race,” assistant coach Michael Whittlesey said.

The men’s team placed ninth overall out of 25 teams.

“We had a pretty good race,” Wasinger said. “We had some guys that really showed up today and anyone who had a bad day, people made up for it.”

Wasinger finished first for the Kansas men with a time of 31:58.20, placing 35th overall. Junior Nick Caprario and sophomore Zach Zarda came in second and third for Kansas, placing 46th and 52nd, respectively. Junior Dan Van Orsdel and sophomore Kaleb Humphreys placed 64th and 69th.

This meet marks the end of the season for both the men’s and the women’s teams. Both teams have had strong seasons under a new coach with a new practice system.

“We had a good year this year,” Wasinger said. “We had a new coach, obviously, and we’ve worked with him well.”

— Edited by Amanda Thompson