Sept. 26, 2007

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - After two hard weeks of training, the Bowling Green State University men's and women's cross country teams will resume their 2007 season when they head to Louisville, Ky. this Saturday (Sept. 29) to compete in the Greater Louisville Classic held at E.P Tom Sawyer State Park. The races will kick-off at 9:30 a.m. with the men's 8,000-meter race followed by the women's 5,000-meter race at 10:15 a.m.

This weekend's event will be the third of the fall season and comes just two weeks after a solid performance by the BG women at the 21st annual Mel Brodt Invitational. Freshman Ashley Fischer competing in just her second collegiate race took the ninth spot in her first Mel Brodt with a time of 18:14, which put her just 21 seconds behind the race winner as the women garnered a fourth-place finish.

Fischer's top 10 effort came just two weeks after she picked up her first collegiate victory in the dual-meet with the University of Toledo. The Fremont, Ohio native has been a big lift for a team that has been missing star-runner Jamie Roflow, who is still unable to compete due to injury.

"I am really proud of Ashley for the competitiveness and determination that she has shown this season," said BG coach Cami Wells. "The women have been aware since the first week of practices that they were going to have to work hard to compensate for Jamie [Roflow] being out and they have really pushed themselves to step up and be leaders so that we can continue to work toward reaching our team goals."

Helping Fischer compensate was freshman Barbara Powers (Bowling Green, Ohio) and sophomore Carly Bates (Palatine, Ill.) who both would collect top 20 finishes for the orange and brown. Powers earned the 16th spot with a time of 18:33, while Bates came across the line just two seconds behind her in the 19th position.

Three other Falcons would then finish in the top 50 with junior Kara Butler (Okemos, Mich.) coming across the line in the 31st spot, freshman Megan Kelsey (Kettering, Ohio) coming in at 37th and junior Kylie Korsnack (Bowling Green, Ohio) coming in at 48th.

"I was pleased with the way the women raced, the majority of the team ran personal best times and looked strong," said Wells. "This meet in Louisville is the first meet that we'll gear towards running fast and we've started to shift our focus from longer workouts to some speed work, so the teams will be more rested as they head into competitions from this point forward."

One team that could use the rest was the BG men's team. The Falcon men struggled to an 11th-place finish in the Mel Brodt after disaster struck near the mid-way point of the race. Sophomore Eddie Kipchoge (Eldoret, Kenya) led most of the early stage of the race, but was forced out due to a hampering ankle injury that had slowed him down for most of the week leading up to the race. That, coupled with a team that had already been troubled by injury and illness coming into the race, spelled trouble for BG, as Chris Moody (Davidsonville, Md.) and Brad Wells (Portage, Ohio) would be the top finishing Falcons finishing 68th and 69th, respectively.

"The men's team has been working to overcome injuries and illness all season so the Mel Brodt meet was a struggle," said Wells. "The men's team has been working hard and I expect to see them race much better in October as we gear up for the MAC meet. This weekend we will be racing six men, mostly upperclassmen and then we will be racing all the men at the All-Ohio meet the following weekend."

Kipchoge has a good week and a half of practice though leading up to the race and Wells is confident that his situation and the men's will be much different this time around.

"Eddie is doing fine," said Wells. " He was disappointed that he was unable to finish the Mel Brodt, but for his long term health it was best that he stopped when he did. Eddie has had no significant problems with his ankle over the past week and a half and will be ready to race Saturday."

Be ready to race is what BG will need to be as this weekend's competition will feature highly ranked and competitive teams from different levels.

"There will be many highly ranked teams and individuals competing this year," said Wells. "On the men's side, Louisville is the defending champion, followed by Tennessee, who was last year's runner-up and then on the women's side Georgia Tech is the defending champion with Tennessee-Chattanooga and Louisville coming back from second and third place finishes. So it'll be tough competition, but we are looking forward to racing against them."

For the second time in as many weeks, the Falcon women found themselves ranked in the latest Division I Cross Country Great Lakes regional poll. BG, who was ranked 11th last week in the Great Lakes Region, came in 15th this week.

Great Lakes Regional Rankings

First Regular Season Ranking

September 23, 2007

This week (Last week)

1. Michigan (1) -- OFF last couple weeks.

2. Wisconsin (2) -- OFF last couple weeks.

3. Michigan State (3) -- Dominated home meet.

4. Notre Dame (4) -- Won National Catholic.

5. Marquette (5) -- Won Midwest Collegiate last weekend.

6. Ohio (6) -- Beat Toledo, BGSU at Mel Brodt.

7. Akron (7) -- Swept home meet.

8. Purdue (8) -- Won Indiana Intercollegiates.

9. Cincinnati (13) -- Besat Miami (Ohio) then defeated partial OU team last weekend.

10. Miami (Ohio) (14) -- Lost to UC at Xavier then won Cedarville Invitational.

11. Ball State (12) -- Finished 2nd to Purdue at Indiana Intercollegiates.

12. Butler (9) -- Finished distant 5th at Indiana Intercollegiates with partial squad.

13. Central Michigan (NR) -- Won Central Collegiates over Toledo, WMU, EMU.

14. Toledo (10) -- Finished 2nd at Mel Brodt to OU and over BGSU

15. Bowling Green (11) -- Lost to OU and Toledo at Mel Brodt

Competing Schools at Greater Louisville Classic

Asbury College

Bellarmine Univ.

Berea College

Bryan College

Centre College

DePaul University

Edinboro Univ. of PA

Florida International

Florida Southern College

Georgia State Univ.

Georgia Tech

Gordon College

Hanover College

Harding University

Indiana Invaders (unatt)

Kentucky State Univ.

Lincoln Memorial Univ.

Lindenwood University

Lindsey Wilson College

Middle TN State Univ.

Montreat College

Morehead State Univ.

Mount St. Joseph

Murray State Univ.

Rend Lake College

Runners Market (unatt)

Southeast Missouri St. U

St. Joseph's College

Thomas More College

Univ.of the Cumberlands

Univ. of Dayton

Univ. of Kentucky

Univ. of Louisville

Univ. of Mississippi

Univ.of Missouri-Rolla

Univ. of South Florida

Univ.of Southern Indiana

Univ.of St. Francis

Univ. of Tennessee

Univ.of Tenn-Chattanooga

Vanderbilt University

Wake Forest University

Western Kentucky Univ.

Wilmington College (OH)

Wright State Univ.