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Cross Country To Run At NCAA Great Lakes Regional

Cross Country To Run At NCAA Great Lakes Regional
Posted: Nov 09, 2010

Nov. 9, 2010

Contact: Greg Murphy

MEET #9

Great Lakes Regional Championship
Date: Saturday, Nov. 13, 2010
Time: 12:00 p.m.
Site: Oakland, Mich.

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THE STARTING LINE: The Cleveland State cross country team concludes the 2010 season when the Vikings compete at the Great Lakes Regional Championship on Saturday (Nov. 13) in Oakland, Mich. The 6K race will begin at 12:00 noon at the Katke-Cousins G.C. The Vikings have been out of action since finishing sixth of 10 teams at the Horizon League Championship on Oct. 30.

LAST TIME OUT: The Vikings ran to a sixth place finish out of 10 teams at the Horizon League Championship in Chicago, Ill., on Oct. 30, marking the best finish at the event since CSU placed sixth in 1996 and the first time that the Vikings finished ahead of four schools at the Horizon League Championship. CSU totaled 157 points, finishing just eight points behind fifth place Wright State. Junior Allison Craine led the Vikings with a 16th place showing in 19:01, while sophomore Brittany Elmlinger was 20th in 19:12.

WEARING SOME RED: The Vikings will not be hard to identify at the NCAA Regional meet on Saturday as CSU will wear red shoelaces during the race. The squad purchased the shoelaces at the Nike store in Chicago during the Horizon League Championship two weeks ago as a way to support the fight of deadly diseases in Africa. Part of the profits from the sales go directly to the Global Fund, which helps fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and helps to dramatically increase resources to fight the three diseases.

CLOSE THE GAP: One thing that head coach Joe Jaketic has stressed during his tenure is wanting to close the time gap between CSU's first and fifth runners and the effort at Shawnee State on Oct. 8 was the best under the sixth year head coach with just 44 seconds separating top finisher Allison Craine (19:41) and fifth finisher Andira Bazilevich (20:15).

GOING UNDER 20: The Vikings have had 20 sub-20 minute times this year, including the trio of Allison Craine, Brittany Elmlinger and Kari Haywood going under 20 minutes in each of the last four races. That is the first time in program history that CSU had three runners under 20 minutes in four consecutive events. To put it in perspective, CSU had just 17 times of under 20 minutes since 2005.

... AND CRAINE BREAKS 19 MINUTES: Junior Allison Craine ran the race of her life earlier this year at the Mel Brodt Invitational on Sept. 11, finishing the course with a career best time of 18:50. She became just the third runner in school history to break the 19 minute mark and the first since Amy Ritzman ran an 18:53 at the 1992 Mid-Continent Championship.

THE HEAD COACH: Now in his sixth season at the helm of the cross country program, Joe Jaketic has continued to make steady progress in building the team. A 1972 graduate of Cleveland State, Jaketic, who was the equipment manager at CSU for 37 years before retiring in December of 2008, has consistently had his team near the top of the Horizon League in GPA and has won the Academic Progress Rate Award in each of the last three years.