It had been seven years since a team other than Aquinas College won the men's conference championship, but Cornerstone University was able to turn that fact into a positive to win the 2009 title by placing three runners in the top 10 of the race. For their effort, the Golden Eagles were awarded the league's automatic berth the nationals. Individual winner Zac Ripley's time of 25:52 was the tenth fastest time from the 24 conference races. The victory catapulted Cornerstone into a tie for the No. 12 slot in the final rating.

The Aquinas men also qualified for nationals, receiving an at-large bid after finishing second at the conference meet. The Saints fell from third to #15 and received the fourth at-large awarded.

In addition to the two teams, several individuals will represent the WHAC based on their finish at the conference meet. Mike Glinski and Jesia Rodriquez, of Siena Heights University; Andrew Hawks of Davenport University; and Alex Stoltie of Indiana Institute of Technology will also run at nationals. Glinski and Rodriquez finished fourth and fifth at league while Hawks was eighth. Stoltie originally thought he missed the cut, but when another league's race saw a team result in a DNF (did not finish), Stoltie was next in line.

The men's race will feature 40 teams and 102 individual qualifiers.

Click here to view the complete list of qualifiers.
 

Andi Owens-Ripley and Janelle Lindman of Cornerstone, Sarah Sherwood from Madonna University, and Kim Cramer and Dominique Miller of Siena Heights will all make the trek.

Owens-Ripley finished second at league while teammate Lindman took sixth. Sherwood crossed in fourth place, just ahead of Cramer. Miller finished eighth to qualify.

The women's race included 31 teams and 117 individual qualifiers.

View entire list of women's qualifiers.