Bowling Green State University Athletics
Cross Country Competes At Central Collegiates
September 24, 2003 | Men's Cross Country
Sept. 24, 2003
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University cross country teams, after participating in three consecutive matches in Northwest Ohio, now will leave the state for the next three races, beginning Friday (Sept. 26). The Falcons of head coach Cami Wells will head to the Kalamazoo area for the Central Collegiate Championships. The races, hosted by Western Michigan, will be held at the Pine View Golf Club in Three Rivers, Mich.
The men's race is scheduled to start at 4:30 p.m., with the women's race set for a 5:15 p.m. start. The men's race will be eight kilometers in length, with the women running a 5K race.
In addition to the Falcons and the host Broncos, the competition is scheduled to include the men's and women's squads from Ball State, Detroit, UW-Milwaukee and Wright State. Additionally, Notre Dame (men and women) and Toledo (women only) will send portions of their teams.
DIRECTIONS TO PINE VIEW GOLF CLUB
Take I-75 North to I-80 West. Take I-80 West to U.S. 131 North exit. Take U.S. 131 North to Route 216W (Marcellous Hwy.). Follow Marcellous approximately 1.5 miles to the first street on the right, which is Pulver Road. Take Pulver Road approximately 0.8 miles. Pine View Golf Club will be on the right-hand side.
"The women have been racing well all season," said Wells. "They prepared themselves well this summer, and they have worked extremely hard the past five weeks to get to the point they are at right now.
"We have backed off a little this week, as far as intensity, to let them rest up for Friday. We have finished second the past two weeks, and we want a team title Friday.
"The men had a much better race Saturday (at the Toledo Invitational) than in the Mel Brodt meet. They are working together as a team now, and they are focused on making improvements every week.
"They know there is a lot of work ahead of them to get to the higher ranks of the conference and they are prepared to stick with it until that happens. The conference is loaded with talent and currently has two teams ranked in the top ten in the nation."
The Falcons are coming off Saturday's (Sept. 20) Toledo Invitational. While no team scores were kept, the Falcon women would have finished behind only host UT. BG would have tied Kent State and finished ahead of Ohio and Cleveland State.
Individually, senior Amber Culp placed third overall in that race, the 10th-straight time she has been BG's top finisher.
The men's team saw the top five runners all finish within a minute of one another. Freshman Edgar Ramirez was BGSU's first finisher for the third time in this season's four races.
 Junior Patrick Maynard  |
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The tentative men's travel squad for Friday's race includes senior Jake Smith, juniors Kris Lachowski and Patrick Maynard, and five freshmen -- Vivien Briard, Edwin Cheruiyot, Ramirez, Steve Vairetta and Jeff Wright.
For the BGSU women, the tentative travel party includes seniors Culp and Leighann Kramer, juniors Elise Gould, Melissa Krueger, sophomores Emily Jackson and Caroline Kipchaba and freshmen Bridget Dalic and Andrea Pollack. Junior Nicole Suitor was forced to drop out of Saturday's race at UT with a hamstring injury. If Suitor is unable to compete Friday, sophomore Leslie Carden is slated to take her place.
"On both squads we are working on closing up the gaps between our top five runners," said Wells. "Ideally, we would like to get it down to 30 seconds between our top five. The women had a spread of 34 seconds at the UT Dual (Sept. 5), so we want to get back to that type of team effort. The men made a drastic improvement in their one-to-five spread last week, getting it down to 59 seconds, and we just want to keep bringing it down."
Following the Central Collegiates, the Falcons will take a weekend off from competition, then head to Alabama for the Auburn Invitational on Oct. 10. After that meet and the Illini Challenge in Urbana, Ill. (Oct. 18), the Brown and Orange will compete in the MAC Championships, hosted by Akron on Nov. 1.
