Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Set To Defend Individual Titles This Saturday At All-Ohio Championships
October 04, 2007 | Men's Cross Country
Oct. 4, 2007
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University men's and women's cross country teams will be looking to defend some individual titles this Saturday afternoon when they take part in the 53rd annual All-Ohio Intercollegiate Cross Country Championships held at the Methodist Theological School in Delaware, Ohio. The Falcon women will be looking to defend Jamie Roflow's individual title last season, as they take part in the 28th annual women's race at 2 p.m., while sophomore Eddie Kipchoge (Eldoret, Kenya) will be looking to defend his men's title in the 53rd annual men's race at 2:45 p.m.
The Falcons are coming into the weekend riding some momentum from last Saturday's races in the Greater Louisville Classic that saw some strong individual performances.
On the women's end, freshman Ashley Fischer (Fremont, Ohio) continued her early collegiate success, as she finished 24th overall with a new personal-best time of 18:03.93, leading the women to a seventh-place overall finish. On the men's side then, Kipchoge rebounded from an injury with-drawl in the Mel Brodt Invitational to run a career-best time of 24:16:37 as led all men's runners with an 11th-place finish.
Kipchoge's time was the third-fastest ever run by a BG men's runner in an 8k race and the fastest time ran in the last 24 years, as only Tim Brennan (24:01/1983) and Jeff Boutelle (24;12/1983) have run faster 8ks.
"I am extremely happy with the way Eddie raced on Saturday," said coach Cami Wells. "Eddie came into the season in great shape and then had a few setbacks with illness and the ankle injury, so his confidence was not as high as usual going into the meet. But Eddie overcame any lingering doubts and put himself in contention at the beginning of the race against a very strong field of frontrunners. He then continued to gain confidence throughout the race and walked away with a personal record and is on track to reach his season goals, one of which is to repeat as All-Ohio Champion this Friday."
Last season Kipchoge won the individual title and Division I title, as he ran a time of 25:30 to earn his third-career first-place finish.
Unlike Kipchoge , defending a title is something that Roflow won't be able to do on the women's side, as injury will once again keep her out of competition this weekend. Despite her absence, the Falcon women have continued to compete hard and have done a nice job of pushing themselves to make up for her loss.
In the women's 5k race this past weekend, the Falcons had four runners in the top 50 with seven total finishing in the top 100. Sophomore Carly Bates (Palatine, Ill.) would finish 38th with a time of 18:27.17, while junior Kara Butler (Okemos, Mich.) and freshman Barbara Powers (Bowling Green, Ohio) finished 41st and 47th with times of 18:35.12 and 18:38.
Other Falcons finishing in the top 100 were freshman Megan Kelsey (Kettering, Ohio) in the 85th spot (19:16.32) and senior Lyndi Springer (Celina, Ohio), who came across in the 96th position (19:22.09), as the women had another top 10 finish.
"I was happy with how the women got out and put themselves in good position from the start, " said Wells. "With such a large field of runners they knew that getting a good start would be very important. I thought overall they ran well, we lost some ground though with our 5, 6, 7 runners in the last mile, so that is something we have to work on this week."
The road won't be easy for the two squads this weekend however, as around 40 schools from all over Ohio will be competing in the event.
"Almost every team in Ohio runs the All-Ohio championship meet," said Wells. "There is usually around 40 schools with all divisions represented. It is an exciting meet and we are looking forward to the challenge."
Women Ranked 15th In Great Lakes Region
For the second-straight week, the Falcon women find themselves ranked 15th in the Division I Cross Country Great Lakes Regional rankings. Below is this week's complete rankings.
Great Lakes Regional Rankings
Second Regular-Season Ranking
October 1, 2007
This week (Last week)
1. Michigan State (3)-- Very close third to Minnesota and Arizona State (53 sec spread)
2. Michigan (1) -- Close 4th at Notre Dame (even w/ Tauro losing over 30 places last 400m)
3. Wisconsin (2) -- Close 4th at Paul Short to Texas Tech
4. Marquette (5) -- 9th at Bill Dellinger over New Mexico, UCLA
5. Notre Dame (4) -- Bit of a drop after 12th at Notre Dame. Still has couple to add.
6. Butler (12) -- Ran top team and it showed. Beat Akron, OU at ND
7. Akron (7) -- Beat Ohio by 1 point. Lost to Butler by 1 point.
8. Ohio (6) -- Lost to Akron by 1 point at Notre Dame.
9. Purdue (8) -- Won Lakefront over field of mostly non-Division I
10. Cincinnati (9) -- OFF
11. Miami (Ohio) (10)-- OFF
12. Ball State (11) -- 5th in Notre Dame "B" Race
13. Central Michigan (13) -- OFF
14. Toledo (14) -- OFF
15. Bowling Green (15) -- 7th at Greater Louisville Invitational
