Bates College

The No. 24 nationally ranked Bates women's cross country team placed 12th out of 52 teams Saturday at Wisconsin-Oshkosh's Pre-Nationals Meet, outracing six nationally ranked squads on the course where the NCAA Division III Championships will be held in November.

Each team was limited to seven runners in the Pre-National race, due to muddy course conditions, but three more Bates runners competed in the Women's Open 6K.

First-year Tara Ellard (Brewster, Mass.) led the Bobcats with a seventh-place finish out of 328 runners in the open 6K, in a time of 23:55.9.