Bowling Green State University Athletics
MAC Meet Set For Saturday
October 30, 2002 | Men's Cross Country
Oct. 30, 2002
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University cross country teams are preparing for this weekend's Mid-American Conference Championships. The Falcon men's and women's teams of head coach Cami Wells will head to Oxford, Ohio, for Saturday's (Nov. 2) league races.
"I am looking forward to the meet Saturday," said Wells. "Both squads have had some very good practices the past few weeks. Everyone is focused and ready to race this weekend.
"We set some team goals at the beginning of the year and this is our chance to go out and make those goals a reality. The competition will be tough on both sides, but we are focusing on running our own race and competing to the best of our ability."
The men's eight-kilometer race is scheduled to begin at 11:00 a.m., with the women's 5K race slated to begin at noon. Both races are scheduled to be held at the Western Campus Course, on the Miami University campus.
The men's race will feature a pair of teams ranked in the top-10 in the nation, as Eastern Michigan is ranked seventh and Central Michigan eighth in the latest Mondo Men's National Poll. On the women's side, Toledo is ranked 26th in the most recent FinishLynx poll.
The Falcons' eight-man contingent for Saturday's first race is scheduled to include Steve Blasko, Kris Lachowski, Patrick Maynard, Phil King, Mario Rothmund, Troy Stiles, Ed Stonestreet and Josh Stucky. Rothmund has been the Falcons' top finisher in each of the last five races, and in all six of the meets in which he has competed this year. King paced the Brown and Orange in the one meet that Rothmund missed, the Great American Legends race on Sept. 7.
Slated to run in the women's race are Cyndi Bostdorff, Leslie Carden, Amber Culp, Elise Gould, Sarah Lohrbach, Briana Killian, Melissa Krueger, Nicole Suitor and Nicola Viljoen. Culp has led BG in each of the last four races, while Killian was the Falcons' top finisher twice and Viljoen once this fall.
The Falcons, idle last weekend, had several runners on each team set personal-best times at the most recent meet, the Auburn Invitational (Oct. 19).
"On the men's side it should be a two-team battle between Eastern and Central Michigan," said Wells. "After that the meet is pretty open. It just depends upon who shows up ready to race Saturday.
"On the women's side it should be a very good competition. Toledo is the favorite going in, but there are several teams that could contend for the title. It will be a dogfight on the women's side and every point will mean a lot. We know the competition will be fierce and we just have to rise up to the occasion and race like we are capable of racing."
BGSU's men's team finished eighth at the 2001 MAC meet, while the women were 12th. The Falcon men have won two league titles in school history (1969 and 1995), while the BGSU women have captured seven MAC crowns over the years (1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1995, 1996 and 1998).
