Sept. 20, 2008

Contact: Greg Murphy

CEDARVILLE, Ohio - Cleveland State scored 140 points and had two runners in the top-20 to place fifth out of 18 teams at the Cedarville Friendship Invitational on Saturday morning at the Elvin R. King Cross Country Course.

Junior Colleen Conway ran a personal-best time of 20:02 to finish in 14th place to lead the Vikings, while freshman Brittany Elmlinger was close behind. She ran a season-best 20:07 and finished 16th.

Both athletes received ribbons in a post-race ceremony for finishing in the top-20.

"This was one of the best races we have had as a team," head coach Joe Jaketic said. "We had ideal running conditions and it was nice to be able to run before noon. The course was in great shape and I was really impressed with how the team responded after a very tough week of practice.

"Both Colleen and Brittany ran great races. Colleen was in ninth place at the two mile mark and fell back a little bit, but she was fighting illness all week. She battled extremely hard all the way to the end. Brittany was in 20th place at the two-mile mark and worked all the way up to finish 16th.

"We have really come a long way and everybody is pushing each other to improve in practices and that translates into success at the races."

Freshman Andria Bazilevich also recorded a season-low time of 20:44 to finish 28th, while Kelly Zaleski was 30th in 20:50.

The Vikings finished just seven points behind Wilmington for fourth place, while Wright State was third with 83 points.

Shawnee State scored 44 points to win the team title by six over Otterbein.

CSU will return to action next Saturday (Sept. 27) when the Vikings travel to Athens, Ohio to compete in the Ohio Invitational.

CSU RESULTS
14. Colleen Conway, 20:02
16. Brittany Elmlinger, 20:07
28. Andria Bazilevich, 20:44
30. Kelly Zaleski, 20:50
70. Audrey Piotrowski, 22:14
94. Jordan Hoile, 23:22
98. Melisa Mazanec, 23:34
113. Amy Salzman, 24:01