Sept. 13, 2008

Contact: Greg Murphy

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Colleen Conway ran a 20:05, just one second off her personal-best time, as the Vikings finished 13th out of 18 teams at the Mel Brodt Invitational on Saturday afternoon at Bowling Green's Forrest Creason Golf Course.

The Vikings, who were running with a season-high eight runners, scored 397 points in the event, which was won by Cincinnati. Kent State was second and the host Falcons were third.

"We had a hard week of workouts and it showed today as everyone ran well, even in difficult conditions," head coach Joe Jaketic said. "It was really slow going because of all the rain we got which made the course pretty sloppy. We were relaxed early on and had a nice little pack where everyone was helping each other.

"It was great to have a full team of eight runners out there today," Jaketic said, referring to a number of Vikings who were running their first race of the season after coming back from injuries. "It was the first race for several runners and I didn't expect them to be up front. I just wanted to get them out there and get them some action."

Conway finished in 51st place to pace the Vikings.

Freshman Brittany Elmlinger was CSU's second finisher behind Conway, placing 86th in 20:55.56. Freshman Kelly Zaleski ran 21:09.38 and finished 95th, while freshman Andria Bazilevich was 105th in 21:28.35.

The Vikings return to action next Saturday (Sept. 20) when CSU competes at the Cedarville Invitational. The event will begin at 10:00 a.m. at the Elvin R. King Cross Country Course.

CSU RESULTS
51. Colleen Conway, 20:05.53
86. Brittany Elmlinger, 20:55.56
95. Kelly Zaleski, 21:09.38
105. Andria Bazilevich, 21:28.35
148. Audrey Piotrowski, 23:12.38
151. Melisa Mazanec, 23:26.83
165. Amy Salzman, 24:41.51
170. Jordan Hoile, 25:01.60