Sept. 1, 2007

Contact: Greg Murphy

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio - The Cleveland State women's cross country team opened the season with a 10th place showing at the Bill Sudeck Invitational on Saturday in Cleveland Heights. Case Western Reserve hosted the event.

"I thought we ran a pretty good race," CSU head coach Joe Jaketic said. "It's good to get the first competition under our belt to see where we stand as a team. We were not used to running in the hot weather since we practice at 6:30 in the morning, but we can't use that as an excuse. We know there is room to improve and we'll get back to work at practice on Monday."

Freshman Allison Craine was the first Viking to cross the finish line as she ran a personal-best time of 20:16. Craine placed 16th overall.

"Allison ran a great race," Jaketic said. "For her to run a personal best in her first collegiate race is a testament to the way she has trained in the preseason."

Sophomore Colleen Conway (41st overall) finished second among CSU runners, clocking in at 21:00 flat. It was one second off tying her personal best set last season. Sophomore Julie Piotrowski, who ran in just one race last season due to injury, was next for the Vikings in 21:43. Her time was good enough for 65th place.

Freshman Jordan Hoile was 115th (23:13), while junion Audrey Piotrowski was CSU's final scorer as she finished 124th (23:42).

Melisa Mazanec (25:00; 144th) and Amy Salzman (27:56; 151st) were the final Viking finishers.

Case Western Reserve topped the team standings, while Oberlin finished second.

The Vikings are back in action on Friday (Sept. 7) at the Crusader Open in Valparaiso, Ind. The race is slated to begin at 6:00 pm (EST).