Junior Diana Hossfeld said the runners could feel the tension in the air at Sunday’s Big Ten cross country championship in East Lansing, Mich.

“It’s exciting,” Hossfeld said. “Everyone knows who is good on the other team, and you know who the people are around you, so it’s more competitive.”

Hossfeld led Northwestern to a ninth-place finish at Sunday’s meet, placing 17th after completing the 6K course in 21:46. But strong performances by Hossfeld, seniors Nora Colligan and Nicole Kalogeroupolos, and sophomore Kalysta Harmon were not enough for NU to break into the top half of the competition.

No. 10 Michigan defended their championship from last year, while No. 6 Michigan State again finished second. Penn State, Indiana, and Wisconsin rounded out the top five.

“There are mixed feelings,” coach Amy Tush said about NU’s performance. “But we were not where we should have been by any means.”

Colligan agreed that the team could have placed higher.

“There are four teams that are very high nationally ranked, and we were hoping to be right behind them,” Colligan said. “The teams that placed fifth through tenth in the Big Ten are pretty similar teams, and anybody could finish anywhere on a given day. We were hoping for fifth or sixth.”

Colligan broke her lifetime personal record — set as a freshman — by five seconds. Finishing 30th overall at 22:07, Colligan said this was the first race of the season she was satisfied with.

She described how a “good” race feels different from a mediocre one.

“You just feel a lot stronger,” Colligan said. “It’s not painful– you don’t even think about it.”

But even a good race has its downsides.

“It doesn’t matter how fast you run,” Colligan said. “It still hurts when you’re done.”

Hossfeld said she accomplished her goal of breaking into the top 20, though she would have liked to finish in the top 14 to earn All-Big Ten recognition.

“I finally got back on track today, ” Hossfeld said. “I was ahead of a pack of Penn State girls, and in the middle of the Wisconsin top five. Their top five have been ahead of me in other races, so I got up with girls I should have been running with all along.”

The Cats are looking toward the Nov. 15 Midwest Regional Championship in Stillwater, Okla., where they will have another chance to prove the squad’s potential.

“It all comes down to having all five of us having a good day on the same day, ” Hossfeld said. “Every race this year a couple people have a good race, and a couple won’t.

“It’s a matter of everyone having a good day at the same time.”