Falcon Women to Race in 13th Louisville Cross Country Classic on Saturday

Saturday, October 1

Louisville, Ky.

TBA

Bowling Green State University

Louisville Cross Country Classic

Photo by: Christine Nelson, BGSU Marketing & Communications

Falcon Women to Race in 13th Louisville Cross Country Classic on Saturday

September 29, 2016 | Women's Cross Country

By: by Matthew Daley, Athletic Communicationis Assistant

Course Maps
Travel Information

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -- The Bowling Green State University women's cross country team, ranked 14th in this week's USTFCCCA Great Lakes Regional poll, will travel to Louisville, Ky. on Saturday, Oct. 1 to compete in the 13th Louisville Cross Country Classic. The Falcons will be competing in the Gold Division 5,000-meter race. It begins at 10:15 a.m. local time and includes 38 teams. Twelve of the 38 teams competing in the Gold Division race are regionally ranked, and the University of Michigan enters the race ranked 14th nationally.

"This will be our first major test of the season and presents a great opportunity to race against some of the best teams in the country," said BGSU cross country head coach Lou Snelling.

The meet will be held at the E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park on the east side of Louisville. It is the site of 12 previous editions of this meet and the 2012 and 2015 NCAA Division I national championship meets, and it is the future site of the 2017 NCAA Division I national championship.

BGSU will run against 37 other teams in the Gold Division race, and 11 of those are regionally ranked. Michigan (2nd), Butler (7th) and Toledo (10th) are all ranked in the Great Lakes Region, and the Wolverines are also ranked 14th nationally. Bowling Green will also race against Auburn, Middle Tennessee, Memphis, and UAB, who are ranked ninth through 12th in the South Region. Another four teams in the race are ranked in the Southeast Region: Virginia Tech (4th), Elon (9th), Louisville (11th) and Eastern Kentucky (12th).

The Falcons will also be competing against Mid-American Conference rival Ohio, as well as the aforementioned Toledo. Other competing teams include: Davidson, Detroit, East Tennessee State, Ferris State, Fort Wayne, Grand Valley State, Gualph, Hillsdale, Illinois-Chicago, Johns Hopkins, Liberty, Marquette, Morehead State, Saginaw Valley, Southeast Missouri, South Alabama, Southern Indiana, Taylor, Tennessee, Toronto, UT-Martin, Western Ontario, Windsor, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Xavier.

Bowling Green has raced on this course in each of the previous two seasons. BGSU participated in the 2014 Louisville Cross Country Classic and finished 15th of 33 teams in a Gold Division race that included three nationally-ranked teams. Three current team members competed in that 5K event (Allison Francis, 18:28.86; Elena Lancioni, 18:38.20; Rebecca Schott, 19:24.44). Last season, the team participated in the Louisville Pre-Nationals at the Sawyer course. Rachel Walny finished 20th in the 6,000-meter race with a time of 20:28.1, while Francis, Lancioni and Schott also competed.

The Louisville meet will be BGSU's first competition since the 29th Mel Brodt Collegiate Invitational on Sept. 16. Walny won the Mel Brodt event for the second consecutive year with a career-best 5K time of 17:16.2 and a victory margin of 25 seconds. Schott placed fourth overall and second among attached runners with a time of 17:47.8. That beat her previous personal best by nearly 20 seconds and was a 57 second improvement over the 2015 Mel Brodt. Lancioni also set a personal record (18:09.2) and finished seventh.