Bowling Green – The women’s cross country team had their final challenge of the regular season Saturday at the annual Falcon Invitational but came up short, taking a third place team finish with 107 points out of 18 teams, but still made even more progress on the season. Miami would win the meet with 65 points, just edging out second place Toledo who had 69 points.
“I thought we had a lot of good things happen on the women’s side,” said coach Cami Wells. “We only had a 51 second gap and we ran well.”
The Falcons used a tough top three in Ashley Fischer, Barbara Powers and Carly Bates to get things done.
Fisher would cross the line first for the Falcons in 14th place out of 191 runners in a time of 18:25.64 with Powers right on her heels, for the second week in a row, in 15th and a personal best of 18:28.61.
“They have been helping each other push each other in practice for a while now,” Wells said. “Now they are doing it in races too.”
Kelsey McHugh of Miami would be the only runner to separate the Falcons’ top three as Bates crossed the line at 17th with a time of 18:31.72.
“They raced very well,” Wells said. “Barbara had a PR and it was close for Carly. We just need to push them up to other team’s front runners.”
Kara Butler would cross the line 22 seconds after Bates to finish fourth for the Falcons in 31st place and a time of 18:53.41. Not far behind Butler was senior Lyndi Springer who had a personal best time of 19:16.42, good enough for 42nd place.
“Kara didn’t necessarily have her best race Saturday, but I’m not worried because I know she’ll bounce back, and it was Lyndi’s best race of the year,” Wells said.
Other top finishers for the Falcons included freshman Megan Kelsey right behind Springer in 46th with a time of 19:17.83 and Kylie Korsnack in 50th in a time of 19:21.84.
The Falcons are taking the next weekend off, resting up for the MAC meet on Oct. 27 at Central Michigan. The Falcons hope to take home the crown but will have some stout competition with Miami, Ohio University, Akron and rival Toledo, who has taken two out of the last three meetings with the Falcons, in what will be one of the toughest MAC meets in recent history.
