Cross country didn’t meet its expectations this weekend, finishing 11th of 12 during the 2013 MAC Championships Saturday in Bowling Green, Ohio.

NIU came out of the race with a solid start, but did not continue its race with the determination it had been practicing with going in.

“Off the line they got out in good position,” said head coach Greg Hipp. “And then the race got moving right before the 1K, and we just responded poorly to the challenge of the event.”

The individual conference championship was given to Ohio’s Juli Accurso for the third consecutive season when she crossed the finish at 20:37.46.

Hipp didn’t see the same NIU team at the championships that he had seen training beforehand.

“In the three years I have been here I have never seen a team look so positive and confident in the days approaching the conference championship,” Hipp said. “It is completely unexplainable how over the course of the gun going off and the first kilometer we completely converted back to the way we used to do things.”

The Huskies’ score of 271 was enough to beat out Ball State in the final standings. NIU had two runners finish in the top 45, led by junior Meghan Heuer. Heuer clocked in with a time of 22:39.08, giving her a 37th-place finish out of 102 runners.

Sophomore Leah Raffety took 45th place, timing in at 23:02.42. Sophomore Ali Olson was the next Huskie finisher, placing 60th with a time of 23:22.84.

The fourth Huskie to cross the conference finish line was junior captain Jamie Burr, who completed her first race since the Roy Griak on Sept. 28. Burr timed in with a 23:34.88 to finish 70th.

Competing in her final MAC Championship, senior Claire McAuley was eight places behind Burr in 78th with a time of 23:52.52.