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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
TOLEDO
Cross Country Opens Fall With Dual Split Of Toledo
August 29, 2008 | Men's Cross Country
Aug. 29, 2008
Complete Women's Results In PDF
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University men's and women's cross country teams opened their 2008 fall season., earning a split with their arch-rival the University of Toledo on Friday evening on the BGSU campus. The Falcon women earned a 22 to 34 win, while the Falcon men came up short, falling 23 to 32.
Senior Kara Butler (Okemos, Mich.) and sophomore Christopher Moody (Davidsonville, Md.) each would earn their first collegiate victories on the evening for the Falcons, but a two, three, four and five finish for the UT men in the men's 5K would spoil any chance at a BG sweep.
Butler earned the win in the women's 3K with a time of 10:29, giving the Falcons their fifth-straight individual race-winner against UT. Sophomore Ashley Fischer and senior Jamie Roflow had each won the previous four individual titles in the meet.
"Kara did an outstanding job tonight," said BG coach Cami Wells. "She really came into the preseason and has looked great from day one. It started for her last spring in track and and then she was able to have a great 10K at the MAC [Mid-American Conference] meet and it has just built from there for her."
Moody then brought the Falcon men their third-straight individual win against the Rockets in the men's 5K with a time of 15:59. BG's Eddie Kipchoge had taken home individual honors the previous two seasons.
"I'm very happy for Chris," said Wells. "His goal today was to win and I'm really happy he was able to do that. Last year as a freshman, Chris came in here without doing any summer training and we gave him a hard time for that because of how gifted a runner he is. But this summer he put in a lot of work in the off-season work and for him to break 16 minutes today was a great effort on his part."
Despite Moody's great effort however, it would be the UT men prevailing in the men's 5K as Chris Wall, Barnaba Kiprotich, Darren Flickinger and Jonathan DeWitt took positions two through five for the Rockets. Wall came across the line with a time of 16:02, just three seconds behind Moody, while DeWitt rounded out the group with a time of 16:48.
Aaron Smuda (Rogers City, Mich.) would be the next highest-finishing Falcon, coming across the barrier with a time of 16:53. Following just 11 seconds behind in seventh was Jesse Smuda (Deshler, Ohio) who ran a 17:04.
John Bernard (Worthington, Ohio) and Jeff Ehler (Cincinnati, Ohio) would cap the BGSU scoring finishing eighth and tenth, respectively.
"We were certainly not happy to get beat by the margin we did in the men's race, but overall the guys made a great effort," said Wells. "I didn't see anyone giving up, despite the intervals and no one looked like they were quitting. The slow start hurt us, but that is the danger of an early season meet. We wanted to be cautious, but probably got too cautious and with a 5K race, you just won't be able to make up that ground."
The Falcon women thon would get the evening off to a good start in the women's 3K, as they took first and second on way to a convincing win.
Behind Butler, who set the pace for a majority of the race, was senior Kylie Korsnack (Bowling Green, Ohio) who ran a time 10:44 to come across the line just 15 seconds back of her senior classmate.
UT's Dagna Sztykiel and Karen Sovacool would earn third and fourth then, before BG senior Jamie Roflow (Cincinnati, Ohio) would came across fifth at 10:48. Bowling Green native Barbara Powers would finish sixth with a time of 10:50, while Heather Conger (Euclid, Ohio) rounded out the Falcons scoring in eighth with a 10:53
"I thought the women's team ran very well tonight and we had great efforts from them across the board," said Wells. "We especially got a great effort from our senior class with three seniors being our top three finishers. It was great to see them come out strong and provide us with the big spark they did."
The Falcons will next return to action on Saturday, Sept. 13 when they host the 22nd annual Mel Brodt Invitational.
