Sept. 7, 2007

Contact: Greg Murphy

VALPARAISO, Ind. - Cleveland State freshman Allison Craine was the top freshman finisher among the five Horizon League schools and finished 19th overall (20:45) as the Vikings placed eighth at the Crusader Invitational on Friday evening.

"I worked the team pretty hard this week, so I was pleased with the overall performance," head coach Joe Jaketic said. "The course is very demanding and with the heat, it was a lot slower than we anticipated. But we feel much better about the course and look forward to coming back here for the conference championships.

"We have a great track record of recording faster times the second time we run a course," Jaketic continued. "So hopefully that trend will continue."

In just her second collegiate race, Craine was the top CSU finisher for the second straight week. She was once again followed by sophomores Colleen Conway (21:38) and Julie Piotrowski (22:26) who finished 31st and 42nd, respectively.

Freshman Jordan Hoile placed 52nd with a time of 23:45, while Audrey Piotrowski rounded out the CSU scoring with a 53rd place showing (24:01.)

Junior Melisa Mazanac was 55th in 24:25, while Amy Salzman came in 56th (27:16).

Alison Ohliger missed her second straight race due to injury, but Jaketic hopes to have her back in the lineup next week.

Notre Dame won the event and was followed by Western Michigan, Milwaukee, Valparaiso, St. Joseph's, Wright State, Green Bay and Cleveland State.

The Vikings will return to action next Saturday (Sept. 15) at the Mel Brodt Invitational at Bowling Green. The race is slated to begin at 10:45 am.