Oct. 14, 2006

Contact: Josh Rattray

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Four Viking runners posted personal-best times and two more ran to season-best times as CSU placed 18^th of 19 teams at the Falcon Invite on Saturday (Oct. 14) morning at Bowling Green.

Sophomores Madeline Singer (21:34) and Melisa Mazanec (23:08), junior Christina Swierz (21:38) and freshman Colleen Conway (20:59) each clocked career best efforts while senior Sherri Douglas (21:34) and sophomore Audrey Piotrowski (22:23) enjoyed their best runs of the season.

"I ran really well today," head coach Joe Jaketic said. "We could have done even better, but the wind didn't really cooperate."

Freshman Caitlan Ebner led the Vikings with a time of 20:27, her second-best effort of the season. She has now led CSU in each of its six meets.

The meet was an important one for the Vikings, as it served as the last 5K contest before the Horizon League Championships on Oct. 28. CSU was one of five league teams at the meet, and it now has a better idea of what the competition holds in store at the league meet. UW-Milwaukee finished fifth as a team, followed by Youngstown State (15^th), Wright State (16^th), CSU and Detroit (18^th).

The Vikings and Titans actually tied in the team standings, but the tie-breaker went in Detroit's favor because the team's sixth runner was better than CSU's sixth runner.

Akron won the meet, followed by Ball State, IPFW and host Bowling Green.

"Now we know where we stand in the league," Jaketic said. "Today was like a mini-league meet. We have a lot of work but I think we'll be ready for the league championships."

The Vikings return to action with their shortest race of the year on Friday, Oct. 20 at the Kent State Short Course. The 3K run begins at 4:00 p.m.

VIKING TIMES

Caitlan Ebner - 20:27

Colleen Conway - 20:59

Madeline Singer - 21:34

Sherri Douglas - 21:34

Christina Swierz - 21:38

Melisa Mazanec - 23:08

Audrey Piotrowski - 22:23

Shannon Graves - 23:44