Hoosiers struggle, place 9th

Savoy, Ill. -- Head coach Judy Bogenschutz couldn't come up with the words to describe her disappointment. Her team had just placed ninth in the Big Ten Championship, their worst finish since her first year as coach at IU.\nThe Hoosiers totaled 173 points to finish 20 points out of a 7seventh-place tie. Michigan State won the meet, going away with a total of 35 points.\nThe Hoosiers were led by freshman Mindy Peterson and sophomore Becky Obrecht. This was the first Big Ten Championship for both runners. Peterson finished first for the Hoosiers and 16th overall in a time of 17:55.2. Trailing her was Obrecht who finished 18th overall in a time of 17:57.2.\n"I didn't feel like this was my first Big Ten because I have run against these girls earlier in this year," Obrecht said.\nFinishing the scoring for IU in 42nd place was junior Amanda Bell, sophomore Audrey Giesler finished 47th, and sophomore Lauren Weddell placed 50th. \nBogenschutz said she was hoping for more from the runners after Peterson and Obrecht.\n"After the first two, the rest need to be more competitive," Bogenschutz said. "They ran well for a while, then fell off. You can't do that at this level."\nBut Bogenschutz said she was happy with Peterson and Obrecht's races. Peterson said she ran fairly well.\n"I think Becky and I ran smart races," Peterson said. "We wanted to be in the top 15. Neither of us ran bad races, yet we could have run better. But we're not disappointed."\nThe Hoosiers have two weeks to prepare for the Regional meet. Peterson said the team is prepared physically but they need to prepare mentally.\n"We're in shape," Peterson said. "We have the potential. Physically, we're there. Becky and I have a lot of faith in the other runners. We know that they can turn it around."\nBogenschutz said she's not going to change much in terms of training heading into Regionals. She just hopes that the team will step up.\n"Mindy and Becky will be fine at Regionals," she said. "We need three others to step up. We can't go out and place in the 40s and 50s and expect to be competitive."\nObrecht said the Hoosiers need to run well at the right time.\n"It's just going to come down to the race," Obrecht said. "We need to mentally get ourselves into the race, really focus and not doubt ourselves"