Shuble And Niekamp Earn Top Three Finishes In Mel Brodt Collegiate Invite

Friday, September 3

Bowling Green, Ohio

5:30 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

Mel Brodt Collegiate Invite

Photo by: Mallory Hiser, BGSU Athletics

Shuble And Niekamp Earn Top Three Finishes In Mel Brodt Collegiate Invite

September 03, 2021 | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country

Mel Brodt Collegiate Invite Men's Results Mel Brodt Collegiate Invite Women's Results

By: Pershelle Rohrer, BGSU Strategic Communications

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University men's and women's cross country teams opened their respective seasons Friday (Sept. 3) night in the Mel Brodt Collegiate Invite. The women's team earned a second-place team score, while the men's team posted a team score of third place. AJ Haffa came in 15th overall for the men, while Katerina Shuble and Sydney Niekamp led the Falcon women with second and third place finishes.

Men's 5K Event
The men's 5k event featured 39 runners from Bowling Green, Eastern Michigan, Toledo and the Bowling Green Track Club. Eastern Michigan finished first with a team score of 15, followed by Toledo with a team score of 45. Bowling Green came in third place, scoring 84 points.

Individual Performances

Junior AJ Haffa finished first for the Falcons for the second straight Mel Brodt Invite, coming in 14th place overall. He crossed the finish line at 15:53.9 for a new personal best in the 5k, improving his time from the 2019 Mel Brodt Invite by just over three seconds.
Coming in second for the Falcons was senior Cesar Arellano, who finished 16th overall with a time of 15:59.6. Just seconds behind him was freshman Michael Nowinski, who finished his first collegiate race at 16:00.2 for a 17th place finish.
Junior Vince Manning was the fourth Falcon to cross the finish line, placing 18th overall. He set a new personal best in the 5k, completing the race in 16:03.8.
Junior Jorge Vazquez rounded out the top five finishers for Bowling Green, completing the race with a time of 16:15.3 for a 21^st overall finish.

Coach Kelly Leatherman's Take
"The first meet, it's a nice one to just get the legs moving again. We like to think of it as a rust buster mindset, so just get out there, be aggressive, maybe start out more conservative and then just play with the race along the way. I thought overall we executed that plan pretty well."

Women's 5k Event
The women's 5k event saw 40 participants from Bowling Green, Eastern Michigan, Toledo, and Western Michigan, with a handful of runners competing unattached. Toledo earned first place as a team with a score of 30. Bowling Green finished second with a team score of 49, edging out Eastern Michigan's 53. Western Michigan placed fourth with a team score of 97.

Individual Performances

Seniors Katerina Shuble and Sydney Niekamp finished second and third for the Falcons, crossing the finish line with times of 17:42.7 and 17:44.1, respectively. Shuble set a new personal best in the 5k, improving her time by 11 seconds. Meanwhile, Niekamp shattered her personal best, shaving off 33 seconds from her 2019 Louisville Classic time of 18:17.1.
Junior Libbie Gleason came in third for Bowling Green in her first collegiate 5k. She crossed the finish line with a time of 18:35.9, finishing 15th.
Coming in fourth for the Falcons was junior Elise Johnson. Also competing in her first collegiate 5k, she finished just behind Gleason in 16th place with a time of 18:42.5.
Freshman Raegan Burkey finished fifth for the Falcons with a time of 18:50.2. She finished 18th overall while running unattached in her first collegiate race.

Coach Lou Snelling's Take
"It was a solid opener for us. We had a lot of different goals going into this one. A lot of them were more process-oriented sort of things, more of the controllables, and it looks like we did a pretty solid job with those."

Up Next
The Falcons will compete in the Spartan Invitational, hosted by Michigan State, on Friday, Sept. 17, at 11 a.m. The men's 8,000m and women's 6,000m races will take place at Forest Akers East Golf Course in East Lansing, Mich.

Follow The Falcons
Be sure to follow the Falcons cross country teams throughout the season on social media.
Twitter – @BGAthletics and @BG_XCTrack
Instagram – 'bgfalcons' and 'bg_xctrack'
Facebook – 'BGSU Athletics'
YouTube – 'Falcon Athletics'