Walny Breaks 5K School Record at Louisville Cross Country Classic

Saturday, October 1

Louisville, Ky.

TBA

Bowling Green State University

Louisville Cross Country Classic

Photo by: David Meel

Walny Breaks 5K School Record at Louisville Cross Country Classic

October 01, 2016 | Women's Cross Country

By: by Matthew Daley, Athletic Communicationis Assistant

RACE RESULTS

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Rachel Walny broke a 31-year-old school record and the Bowling Green State University women's cross country team defeated two ranked opponents as the Falcons battled at the 13th annual Louisville Cross Country Classic on Saturday, Oct. 1. The meet, held at E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Ky., was comprised of several races. The Falcons were in the Gold Division race, which featured 36 teams and 368 runners.

Walny broke the 5,000-meter school record by finishing the course in 17:10.7. The old mark, which had stood since 1985, was 17:12. Walny set the BGSU 6,000-meter record on this course in 2015 as a redshirt freshman by finishing the Louisville Pre-Nationals in 20:28.1.

Walny finished 11th overall and just four-tenths of a second out of the top ten. She improved her time by six seconds from her 2016 debut at the Mel Brodt Collegiate Invitational two weeks ago. That mark, 17:16.2, was already one of the top in Falcon history.

Cassandra Boyle placed in the top quarter of all runners with a time of 17:57.0, which is just three-tenths of a second shy of the personal record she set at the Mel Brodt on Sept. 16. Rebecca Schott also fell just short of her PR from the Mel Brodt, but her time (17:58.7) is an improvement of 1:25 over her performance at the 2014 Louisville Cross Country Classic. She also finished in the top quarter of the field.

Like Schott, Elena Lancioni raced in this event two years ago, and her performance on Saturday improved on her 2014 time. In 2014, she completed the 5K in 18:38.2; today, she did so in 18:30.6.

Three Falcon runners improved on their time from the Mel Brodt on Sept. 16. Rachel Durbin went from 18:57.7 to 18:50.9. Allison Francis improved by more than 20 seconds, from 19:40.0 to 19:19.5. Redshirt freshman Kelsie Mothersead, in just her third career race, went from 19:29.8 to 19:27.0.

Jody Musser also competed for Bowling Green and completed the 5K in 19:45.4.

As a team, Bowling Green placed 17th out of 36 teams. The Falcons defeated Middle Tennessee, who is ranked 10th in the South Region and finished 18th on Saturday, as well as Alabama-Birmingham. UAB is ranked 12th in the South and placed 25th in Louisville.

BGSU also topped Mid-American Conference rival Ohio, who placed 24th overall.

The Falcons return to action on Monday, Oct. 17 in Terra Haute, Ind. at the Indiana State Pre-Nationals. That will be their final meet before the MAC Championships, which take place on Oct. 29 in Kent, Ohio.