Men's Cross Country Ranked 12th in USTFCCCA Great Lakes Regional Poll

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University men's cross country team is ranked 12th this week in the USTFCCCA Great Lakes Regional poll. The honor comes on the heels of a successful performance at the 61st Joe Piane Invitational, which was held in South Bend, Ind. on Friday, Sept. 30.

This is the first time that BGSU is ranked in the regional poll dating back to at least 2003, which is the earliest available record from the USTFCCCA. The Falcons continue to build on last year's success, which saw Bowling Green earn its best finish at the MAC Championships in 15 years. The team has earned the regional ranking despite being without the services of Nathan Kuck, the Falcons' leading runner in 2015, for the first three races this season.

"This is exciting news for our program. A regional ranking in the Great Lakes is a large step for us," said assistant men's cross country coach Chuck Wentz. "However, there is still a lot of season left, and we need to continue producing ranking-worthy results as we progress."

In their most recent meet, Bowling Green finished eighth out of 24 teams in the Gold Division race at the Joe Piane Invitational at the University of Notre Dame. The Falcons competed against four teams who were regionally ranked last week and defeated three of them (Indiana State, Oakland and Belmont). BGSU also defeated Central Michigan, the only other MAC team in the Gold Division event, by ten places.

Noah Schaub continues to improve every meet. After establishing a personal 8,000-meter record at the Mel Brodt Collegiate Invitational, Schaub finished the five-mile event at Notre Dame in 25:24.1. That was 33 seconds faster than his Mel Brodt time, despite the five-mile course being nearly 50 meters longer.

Jonathan Wenning is also building an impressive profile. He finished on Schaub's heels in 25:24.6 and improved his Mel Brodt time by over one minute.

Tyler Phillips and Kohl Taberner both ran sub-26:00 times, and Taberner's 25:46.1 was just five-tenths of a second shy of his personal 8K record.

BGSU is one of three Mid-American Conference teams to earn regional rankings this week. Eastern Michigan is fifth in the Great Lakes Region, while Buffalo is tenth in the Northeast Region.

The Falcons' next meet is in two weeks, on Monday, Oct. 17, at the Indiana State Pre-Nationals. That meet is held in Terra Haute, Ind., at the site of the 2016 NCAA Division I National Championships.

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