Cross Country Set To Compete At Pre-Nationals Saturday

Saturday, October 14

Louisville, Ky.

TBA

Bowling Green State University

Pre-Nationals

Photo by: Craig Bell, BGSU Marketing and Communications

October 12, 2017 | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country

By: By Katherine Harvath, BGSU Athletic Communications

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – The Falcons' cross country teams head to Louisville, Ky. this weekend (Saturday, Oct. 14) to compete in their final regular season meet of the year. They will compete in the Pre-Nationals Invitational hosted by the University of Louisville. Bowling Green State University's men's cross country last competed in Louisville at the 2015 Pre-Nationals Invitational with current Falcons Jonathan Wenning, Kohl Taberner and Noah Schaub all competing. The women's squad traveled to Louisville last year, where they placed 17th out of 36 at the Louisville Cross Country Classic. The women also competed at the Pre-Nationals Invitational there two years ago when Rachel Walny set a then personal best 6K time of 20:28.1.

The Invitational
The Pre-Nationals Invitational is the precursor to the NCAA D-I Cross Country Championships held next month. The race will offer participants a preview of the course prior to the collegiate championships to conclude the season. This is the third time the contest has been held at the University of Louisville, after they hosted the events in 2013 and 2015.

Scouting The Competition
This is the largest contest the Falcons have seen thus far in 2017, with a total of 79 teams competing over the course of four races. The women will race first, in the seeded race set for 10:45 a.m. They will face off against 42 other teams including Colorado and Oregon, ranked numbers one and two in the nation respectively. In all, nine nationally ranked teams will compete against the BGSU women's squad. The men's race will directly follow, beginning at 11:30 a.m., with 58 other teams competing. They will see stiff competition from Mid-American Conference foes Central Michigan and Miami (OH) in their final competition before the MAC Championships in two weeks.

Last Time Out
The Falcons are coming off a successful weekend at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational on Sept. 29 that included 10 athletes running personal best times. Walny also set a BGSU 5K school record time of 17:09.9 on her way to a third place finish overall.

Award Winner
For the second time this season, and fourth time of her career, Walny was named MAC Scholar Athlete of the Week (Oct. 4) after her performance in Notre Dame, Ind. She was previously honored for cross country on Sept. 20, 2017 and Sept. 21, 2016 as well as for track and field on April 19.