University of Toledo
Pre-NCAA Invitational
Women's Cross Country Has Solid Showing at Pre-Nationals
10/17/2009 8:00:00 PM | Women's Cross Country
TERRE HAUTE, IN - Sophomore Ari Fisher (Lebanon, OH) placed 37th overall out of 249 runners, and the University of Toledo women's cross country team finished 16th in the competitive Pre-Nationals Invitational Saturday, hosted by Indiana State.
The Rockets finished with 481 points, just behind UC Davis (468) in the 37-team field that featured 11 of the nation's top-40 programs. Toledo entered the weekend ranked No. 32 in the country, fourth in the Great Lakes Region, and had the best finish of the four MAC teams entered in the field, outdistancing conference preseason favorite Miami by 64 points. It was also the third-best performance in program history at the tournament.
Fisher, the top MAC individual finisher as well, completed the 6K course in 21:27.6 and was followed by senior Renata Volf (Krizevcli, Croatia), who finished in 21:54.0 and finished 78th. Other top performers for the Rockets included sophomore Lindsay Toussant (Minerva, OH) in 22:08.3, freshman Devyn Ramsay (Benzonia, MI) in 22:17.5 and junior Karen Sovacool (Lakewood, OH) in 22:29.6.
"We faded a little over the last kilometer because of how hard we got out," said head coach Kevin Hadsell. "But it is great for them. We were in 11th at the 3K mark, ahead of Michigan State. I think by Regionals we will hold tougher."
The Rockets, who were projected to finish fourth at the MAC Championships, saw this meet as another building block towards success at the event, which takes place Oct. 31 at Ohio University.
"Our goal from last year was to get our program back to the top of the MAC," Hadsell said. "We proved that today and are going to ride this momentum and build on it for a run at the MAC Championships."
On the men's side, junior Elisha Kipchumba (Nairobi, Kenya) and sophomore Jonathan DeWitt (Akron, OH) had near-identical finishes as the Rockets finished 29th out of 34 teams. Kipchumba, the team's top finisher in each race this fall, finished 140th overall with a time of 25:44.2 and DeWitt was in 144th in a time of 25:46.5. Junior Chris Wall (Centerville, OH) completed the course in 25:56.4, followed by Barnabas Kiprotich (Eldoret, Kenya) in 26:02.9 and freshman Elliot Livensparger (West Unity, OH) in 26:43.3.
"The men gained a lot of experience today," Hadsell said. "They were up against tough competition but handled it well and beat some good programs."
Both teams will be in action again Friday evening at the Eastern Michigan Open in Ypsilanti, MI.
Contact: Scott Milesscott.miles@utoledo.edu
Players Mentioned
