Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
TOLEDO
Cross Country Opens Season With Split Against Toledo
August 31, 2007 | Men's Cross Country
Aug. 31, 2007
Click here for complete Female results in PDF format
Click here for complete Male Results in PDF Format
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -The Bowling Green State University men's and women's cross country teams opened their 2007 campaign earning a split with their arch-rival the University of Toledo on Friday evening on the BGSU campus. The Falcon women earned a 25 to 31 win, while the Falcon men came up just short, falling 26 to 29.
Freshman Ashley Fischer (Fremont, Ohio) and sophomore Eddie Kipchoge (Eldoret, Kenya) each earned victories for the Falcons, but a two, three and four finish by the UT men ruined the chance at a sweep for BG.
Fischer, earned her first collegiate victory with a time of 18:22, giving the orange and brown yet another top finish in the event. Jamie Roflow had earned top honors three-straight years against UT, but was unable to compete Friday due to injury.
Kipchoge's win earned him the top spot against the Rockets for the second-straight season, as he came across the line with a time of 15:23.
"Overall on the day I'm happy with the efforts of both teams," BG head coach Cami Wells said. "I thought they both ran hard. Obviously on the men's side we let them get away from us too much on the second mile and it allowed them to go two, three and four, but Eddie [Kipchoge] ran a great race. He looked very strong from start to finish and he is ahead of where he was last year at this point."
Despite Kipchoge's efforts, the Falcons weren't quite able to hold off the Rockets in the second mile, as UT's Elisha Kipchumba, Adam Bernal and Darren Flickinger came across the tape at a13-second interval to give UT three of the top five spots.
BG senior Brad Wells (Portage, Ohio) and freshman Max Group (Beavercreek, Ohio) would be the next top finishing Falcons. Wells came in fifth at 16:29, while Group was just 10 seconds behind to earn the sixth spot.
The Falcons would get the evening off to a good start though as they took first and second in the women's race.
Fischer, much like Kipchoge, would set the pace for the entire race en route to a 24-second victory over sophomore teammate Carly Bates (Palatine, Ill.). Bates would set a new personal best time of 18:46, as BG took home four of the top seven spots.
Freshman Barbara Powers (Bowling Green, Ohio) would come across the line in the fourth spot at 18:51, while junior Kara Butler (Okemos, Mich.) came across in the seventh position at 19:12.
"I was very happy with the way the women raced, but we had way too big of a gap between our four and five runners and that cost us," Wells said. "But I was happy with how they closed that up and obviously Ashley Fischer ran an outstanding race for a freshman. It was a very impressive performance by her and she showed a lot of confidence and composure out there and with Jamie [Roflow] out it was nice to see someone in orange up front again."
"Carly Bates ran her best time ever and she really had a great race coming back from red-shirting track with an injury," Wells continued. "She is a good a 800-mile runner and had the speed to pull away and Barbara Powers and Kara Butler both are tremendous competitors and did a great job of coming back in the race."
The Falcons will next return to action on Friday, Sept. 15 when they host the 21st annual Mel Brodt Invitational.
"In two weeks we got to take on Ohio University and Ohio State, so we got some work to do between now and then," Wells said.
