Bowling Green State University Athletics
BGSU Women Tie For 11th At Auburn Invite
October 10, 2003 | Men's Cross Country
Oct. 10, 2003
AUBURN, Ala. - The Bowling Green State University women's cross country team tied for 11th-place at Friday's (Oct. 10) Auburn Invitational, held at the Indian Pines Golf Course in Auburn, Ala. The Falcon men recorded a 23rd-place finish at the meet.
Senior Amber Culp paced the BGSU women, placing 10th overall of 272 individuals in the 5,000-meter race. Culp finished the race in a time of 18:29.34.
Freshmen Bridget Dalic (66th; 19:43.64) and Andrea Pollack (69th; 19:45.58) were the second and third Falcons, respectively, to cross the line in Friday's race. Melissa Krueger (76th; 19:50.49), Leighann Kramer (80th; 19:54.07), Nicole Suitor (98th; 20:12.25), Emily Jackson (113th; 20:20.89) and Caroline Kipchaba (141st; 20:45.18) also competed for the Falcons.
"The meet was very wet, cool and muddy," said Falcon head coach Camil Wells. "They also changed the course this year, so it ended up being considerably longer than last year's course, an estimated 350 metersr longer. So, it wasn't the kind of course that you set records on, but it was true cross country -- lots of mud and guts.
"Amber Culp ran another great race. She had a goal to improve upon her 20th-place finish last year and move up into the top 15, and she ran a very strong race start to finish.
"We are still working on closing up that gap between our number-one and our two-through-five runners this week. There was a 1:14 gap between Amber and our number-two runner, Bridget Dalic. We did have a nice pack, with Bridget, Andrea, Melissa and Leighann within 11 seconds of each other, but we need to move the pack up. I am confident the ladies will get that done next weekend in Illinois."
Freshman Edwin Cheruiyot led the BGSU men, finishing 93rd overall in the 259-man, 8K race. Cheruiyot crossed the finish line in a time of 27:07.07. He was followed by Patrick Maynard (139th; 28:01.81), Edgar Ramirez (142nd; 28:03.24), Vivien Briard (185th; 28:47.26), Jeff Wright (189th; 28:52.54), Kris Lachowski (200th; 29:08.36) and Steve Vairetta (211th; 29:29.74).
"The men had an off day," said Wells. "We just didn't compete well as a team. We had made a lot of progress the past two meets, but we took a step back at Auburn. We had a chance to step up and race against a large quality field and we let it slip away. We'll look at it as a learning experience and get ready for next Saturday."
Host Auburn won the men's team title, while Georgia Tech's Kyle Rabbit was the individual winner. In the women's race, Mississippi State's Tiffany McWilliams finished first among individuals, helping her squad to the team title.
The Falcons will head to Urbana, Ill., next weekend for the Pack-It-Up Illini Challenge.
Results also can be found at www.cfpitiming.com.
