Falcons Race Saturday At 2014 NCAA Championship Course Site

Pre-National Race Assignments
Women's 6K Course Map
Men's 8K Course Map

Bowling Green, Ohio. – The Bowling Green State University men's and women's cross country teams compete out of state Oct. 18, as they race at the Indiana State Pre-National Invitational in Terre Haute, Indiana.

WHAT THE COACHES ARE SAYING
Lou Snelling: "This is a great opportunity for us to prove how far ahead of last year we are while competing against a number of schools in the MAC and region. This will be our last race before the MAC Championships, so we would like to get everything out of it we possibly can and finalize our preparation for November."
Eric Thatcher: "Due to the level of competition and course setup, our men are expecting aggressive pacing from the start of the Pre-National Invitational. Collectively, our group will look to remain controlled early to put ourselves in a position to work together in the second half of the race to have a strong finish. Without the help from recently graduated Jason Salyer, who finished 7th in our Pre-National race last year, we are looking forward to Greg Black taking a step forward to help our young group improve our average finish time from a year ago."

DETAILS ON PRE-NATIONALS
This meet allows the Falcons to race on the NCAA Championship Course before they see it again in late November. The women will have runners in the 12:15 p.m. 6K White Race, which consists of 39 teams, including MAC opponents Central Michigan, Ohio and Kent State. BG women will also race in the 1:30 p.m. 6K Open Race. The 35-team men's 8K White Race takes place at 12:50 p.m. (also competing from the MAC are CMU, Kent State, Miami Ohio and Toledo), and the men's 8K Open Race is set to begin at 2:05 p.m. Fans can view the meet page by CLICKING HERE. For up-to-date results and commentary from the meet, check out the USTFCCCA's National Results Wall.

LAST TIME OUT
The men's squad last competed Oct. 3 at the All-Ohio Championships, placing 22nd in the 8K race. Freshman Kohl Taberner led the team with a top 100 finish individually. The following day, the women raced at the Louisville Cross Country Classic. The team placed in the top half of the competition and was the highest placing MAC team in the 5K race.

RAE-CING TO THE FRONT
Rae set a personal record in the 5K (17:56) at the Toledo Invite where she placed fourth overall and first on the team. The junior has been the team's top finisher in all three meets this season. Most recently, she placed 68th overall with a time of 18:09 at the Louisville Cross Country Classic. Rae finished as the team's top runner for the first time in her career at the 2013 MAC Championships, setting a new personal best time of 22:01.61 in the 6,000-meter distance to place 21st overall.

ALT LEADS THE WAY
Andrea Alt finished as Bowling Green's top runner in four of the five meets she competed in last year, finishing 65th out of 227 runners at NCAA Regionals, second overall at the All-Ohio Championships and 18th at the Mel Brodt Invitational in Bowling Green. In the team's meet at Indiana State, she placed 22nd overall, setting a new personal best time of 21:46.02 over 6,000 meters. This season, Alt placed 14th overall at the Mel Brodt Invitational and 80th out of 300 runners at the Louisville Classic Oct 4.

BLACK PROVIDES SENIOR LEADERSHIP
Redshirt senior Greg Black competed in six of the team's seven meets last season and provides experience and senior leadership on and off the course to a young men's squad. In his first race this season at the Mel Brodt Invitational, Black placed first on the team and fifth overall with an 8,000-meter time of 26:40.71. At the All-Ohio Championships Oct. 3, Black placed in the top third of all finishers (166th overall).

YOUTHFUL
Only two out of eight runners return this season from the men's team (Black and Jeremy Richard). Redshirt freshman Nate Kuck and freshmen Kohl Taberner and Nick Voth have all shown great potential this season, placing as the teams top few finishers in each meet. On the women's side, six of the 16 runners are freshmen or redshirt freshmen, and another five are sophomores of redshirt sophomores. The women are without any seniors this season. Freshmen Rachel Walny and Elena Lancioni and redshirt freshman Allison Francis have already made an impact on the program, as they consistently place among the top seven for the Falcons.

PRESEASON PREDICTIONS
In the USTFCCCA preseason poll, the BGSU women were ranked No. 15 in the Great Lakes Region. This is the team's first regional ranking of the four-year Lou Snelling era.

STRONG ACADEMICALLY
The women's team tied a program record with three Academic All-MAC members in 2013 and the men's cross country team added two more as announced by the MAC last season. Three more women and three more men earned honorable mention status on the teams.

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Andrea Alt

Greg Black

Allison Francis

Elena Lancioni

Jeremy Richard

Jason Salyer

Kohl Taberner

Nick Voth

Rachel Walny

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