Falcons Conclude Cross Season At Regional Meet

Friday, November 14

Madison, Wisc. (Zimmer Cross Country Course)

12:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

NCAA Great Lakes Regional

November 14, 2014 | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country

By: by Alexx Klein, BGSU Athletic Communications

Men's Results (.pdf)
Women's Results (.pdf)

Madison, Wisc. – The Bowling Green men's and women's cross country teams concluded the 2014 season Friday Nov. 14 at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional meet, hosted by the University of Wisconsin. The men placed 26th out of 30 teams and the women finished 13th out of a field of 32.

Kohl Taberner led the way for the Falcons for the fourth consecutive meet in their only 10,000-meter race of the season, and the first of Taberner's career. The true freshman ran a time of 32:20 and finished 107th overall. He placed 27th among all MAC runners in the race.

"You're not sure how a freshman will respond to racing a 10K for the first time in their lives, and he stepped up in a big way," Assistant Coach Eric Thatcher said. "The guys did a tremendous job executing what we wanted them to do. Individually, we are still seeing some results of things we can be proud about."

This was also the first 10K race at the collegiate level for Travis Jex, Landon Brown, Nick Voth and Nate Kuck. Junior Jeremy Richard set a personal best time of 34:15, shattering his previous best by 1:13. Lone senior Greg Black finished second on the team behind Taberner in his last race as a Falcon.

"Overall, I've had an incredible experience running cross country here at BG," Black said. "Running at BG has given me a lot of opportunities and I've developed both as a runner and a person. I've also met some great people along the way. I'm definitely going to miss this."

On the women's side, coming off a second-team all-MAC performance, Becca Rae was the team's top finisher yet again, placing 64 out of 219 runners. Her place was the best individual finish since 2007 and she was just one second off the fastest time ever recorded by a BGSU athlete at a regional championship.

The team's 13th-place finish was the highest team performance since 2006 and was four spots higher than in the previous two years at the regional meet. In 2011, the women placed 32nd overall.

There were a number of nationally ranked teams in the field at the Great Lakes Regional, including No. 1 Michigan State, who scored just 28 team points. Also a part of the top 20 in the country, Wisconsin (6), Michigan (8) and Ohio State (19) were contenders at the race Friday afternoon.

"I was happy with how we ran today," Head Coach Lou Snelling said. "In terms of the goals we set for the meet, we achieved many of them. From a numbers standpoint, the improvements from last season were impressive. We improved on average 1:15 from our top seven last year so that's a pretty significant increase."

BGSU's 2-6 runners were separated by a spread of just 12 seconds. Sophomore Brent Darah finished behind Rae, tying his season PR of 21:43. Jasmine Redman placed third on the team and freshman Elena Lancioni followed in fourth with a 13 second personal best time of 21:52. Andrea Alt and Mackenzie McMillin finished within one second of each other, placing 89 and 91 overall. Allison Francis was 35 seconds behind McMillin.

Looking ahead to the 2015 cross season, the women will have all runners back and the men will only graduate Black from the young team.

"We are excited about what we can accomplish next year," Snelling said. "In terms of eligibility, we are returning everybody on the team and hopefully we can plug in a few of other significant pieces that were not in the mix this season. There is a lot of potential with this team."

Men: BGSU 26^th/30
106. Kohl Taberner 32:20, 154. Greg Black 33:06, 168. Travis Jex 33:22, 182. Landon Brown 34:15, 183. Jeremy Richard 34:15, 187. Nick Voth 34:33, 191. Nate Kuck 34.49

Women: BGSU 13^th/32
64. Becca Rae 21:27, 75. Brent Darah 21:43, 81. Jasmine Redman 21:49, 84. Elena Lancioni 21:52, 89. Andrea Alt 21:54, 91. Mackenzie McMillin 21:55, 120. Allison Francis 22:30