Bowling Green State University Athletics
Cross Country Heads West To Compete In 35th Annual Stanford Invitational
September 22, 2008 | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country
Sept. 22, 2008
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Just like the Falcons of the grid iron, the Bowling Green State University men's and women's cross country teams will be taking their show out west this weekend, as they will head to Palo Alto, Calif. to do battle in the 35th Annual Stanford University Cross Country Invitational on Saturday at the Stanford Golf Course. The races will start at 10:50 a.m. with the men's 8,000-meter race, which will be followed promptly by the women's 6,000-meter race at 11:30 a.m.
Saturday's event will be the third of the fall season for the two squads and comes just two weeks after a solid performance by both teams at the Mel Brodt Invitational. On the women's side, the Falcons earned a third-place overall finish in the final Division I standings, while the men came in fourth in the Division I men's race.
Individually, the BG women were led for the second-straight event by senior Kara Butler (Okemos, Mich.), who took home the sixth-spot overall and the fourth-spot in the Division I standings with a new personal-best time of 18:28. The Falcon men were then once again led by sophomore Christopher Moody (Davidsonville, Md.), who finished 22nd in the Division I standings and 24th overall with a time of 28:10.
In the women's 5K race, BG placed six runners in the top-19 and seven total in the top-30. Other notable finishers were senior Jamie Roflow (Cincinnati, Ohio), who finished 10th with a time of 18:48, junior Carly Wells, who came across the line with a time of 19:01 and the hometown pair of Barbara Powers and Kylie Korsnack, who finished 16th and 17th, respectively.
"I thought the women raced well against what was some pretty good competition," said BG coach Cami Wells. "We fell off some in the third mile, but for it being our first 5K of the season, it was a good starting point. Now we know where need work and where our problem areas are so we can be stronger the next time we race."
On the men's end, the Falcons would place two runners in the top-25 and four total in the top-35, as they continued their strong start to the season without number one runner Eddie Kipchoge. Finishing behind Moody in the 25th-position in the Division I race was Jesse Smuda (Deshler, Ohio), who came across the line with a time of 28:25. Less than a minute behind him in the 31st position then was sophomore Abraham Busienei (Eldoret, Kenya), who ran a time of 29:19.
Other top finishing Falcons for the men were freshman Ben Leininger (Beavercreek, Ohio) and the pack of Aaron Smuda (Rogers City, Mich.), Jeff Ehler (Cincinnati, Ohio) and John Bernard (Worthington, Ohio), who finished in spots 36 through 38. "Our men were in good position in the first half of the Mel Brodt, but they fell off in the second half and just couldn't recover, " said Wells. "With a young squad though, they are learning to work together and be more competitive and consistent on a day-to-day basis."
With two weeks off to prepare for the trip to out to the west coast, the Falcons have been working hard on closing up their gaps and making sure they stay consistent from the start of the race to the end.
"Both teams still need to work hard and make sure that there are very small gaps and distances between the individual runners," said Wells. "Our women have a lot of depth, but we have to have everyone race well on the same day in order to make sure we aren't creating those large gaps. The men then have been concentrating on having stronger second parts of the race and we've been really focusing them in on being more aggressive and consistent."
Consistency will be a must this weekend, as BG will be competing against some of the nation's top teams. In addition to the host Cardinal, the third-ranked team in the preseason Division I Men's U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Poll for the West Region and second-ranked on team on the women's side, the Falcons will see the likes of UCLA, California-Berkley, BYU, Arkansas and many more highly-ranked squads.
"We'll definitely be faced with a great challenge this weekend, but it's a challenge we are looking forward to," said Wells. "The course is a challenging course that will feature a large hill in the last mile, but it's a course that will be run the majority of the time on the golf course, so times are typically pretty good."
