Oct. 29, 2005

Photo Gallery

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - In any sport, all you need is to work hard, have a lot of heart, and the possibilities can be endless. This was the case for the members of the men's and women's cross country team, who competed at Saturday's Mid-American Conference Championships held in DeKalb, Illinois. Although they had all the heart in the world and have worked countless hours for this meet, the team results just didn't end up they way they wanted to.

The women, who were ranked to finish ninth during the preseason, ended up coming in tenth overall. The University of Akron won the meet and the individual champion, also from Akron, was Beata Rudzinska.

The men finished exactly where they were predicted to finish during the preseason, in eighth place. Eastern Michigan University took the team championship trophy home and the individual champion, Dan Huling, hailed from Miami.

For the Falcons, there were two bright stars today in Jamie Roflow for the women and Rogers Kipchumba for the men. Both Roflow and Kipchumba have led the Falcons in all of the five previous meets this season, each winning two. Both standouts were expected to lead the Falcons and compete for some of the top spots in the conference.

Kipchumba and Roflow did just that for the Falcons.

Kipchumba, who finished 13th in the 2004 conference meet, did just as well this year with a 13th place finish with a time of 25:25 for the 8,000m race.

Roflow finished eighth for the Falcons with a time of 18:00 in the 5,000m race which was a vast improvement on her 2004 finish (35th).

Kipchumba and Roflow were both awarded All-MAC honors at the meet as a result of their respective thirteenth and eighth place finishes.

Jamie Roflow was a second team All-MAC selection (Photo by Amanda Decker).

This is the first time in ten years the Falcons have had an All-MAC runner in both the men's and women's races. The last time it happened was in 1995 when Brad Schaser (2nd), Alan Boos (6th), and Tim Arndt (9th) received the honor on the men's side and Suzanne Isco (1st), Tracey Losi (2nd), Kristin Gaddis (3rd), Laura Hall (5th) and Renee Strayer (10th) represented the Bowling Green women.

The last time Bowling Green had an All-MAC honoree on the men's side was in 2001 with Tom Kutter, who finished 12th.

On the women's side, their last All-MAC runner came in 2003 with Amber Culp who finished 5th that year.

Rogers Kipchumba was selected to the second team All-MAC (Photo by Amanda Decker).

Although both teams didn't quite finish where they had hoped to finish, they did see some runners step up and compete well at MAC's. Kara Butler, a freshman on the women's team, moved herself up to the third runner spot with a time of 19:13.For the men, the number two runner Edgar Ramirez, the number three runner Kris Lachowski, and the number four runner Steve Vairetta all stepped up for their fellow teammates as they finished 52nd, 53rd, and 55th respectively, so as the gap between them was small if not inexiststant.

The next goal for the men will be to close down the gap between Kipchumba, the number one runner for the Falcons and Ramirez and crew. The Falcons look to improving upon this weekends performance at the NCAA Great Lakes Regionals in two weeks time. Head Coach Cami Wells has yet to make her decision on who will participate in the meet, as she evaluates her teams performance and their potential in the future.

The 2005 Great Lakes Regional will be held on Saturday, NOvember 12th in Bloomington, Indiana. The men's 10,000m race will start at 11:00 a.m. and the women's 6,000m race will begin at noon.