The four Mid-American Conference women’s cross country teams in competition in Friday’s All-Ohio Cross Country Championships placed in the top nine out of 42 teams.
BG was the last of the four, but considering that the other three teams were voted to finish first through third preseason, BG held its own.
Ohio State won the meet with two runners in the top five. In the MAC, Miami, Akron, and Ohio finished second, third and eighth, respectively. The three teams combined to place 10 runners in the top 25. BG finished just one point behind Ohio.
Carly Wells was the first Falcon to finish (29th; 19:37), and Ashley Fischer finished 36th with a time of 19:48.
‘Carly Wells and Ashley Fischer have been very consistent for us this season,’ said coach Cami Wells. ‘Both of them had quite improved finishes from last year’s All-Ohio meet.’
Abby Koch (20:00) and Andrea Pereira de Almeida (20:02) finished back-to-back in 49th and 50th place.
‘[Abby] finished well among the other freshman in the meet,’ Wells said. ‘It was certainly a solid effort but she’s pushing for more in the last three meets of the season.’
Wells said the women are taking steps to put together everything they’ve been working on.
‘We ran another decent race as a team but certainly we’re capable of finishing a few spots higher,’ Wells said. ‘It shows we’re capable of competing against the top teams in the MAC but that it’s going to take our best effort to put ourselves in position to have a finish we’re happy with at the conference meet.’
The MAC Championships are Oct. 31, hosted by Ohio University.
Also in competition for BG were Sally Kandie (20:30), Heather Conger (20:34) and Megan Kelsey (21:18). In the open run Barbara Powers (20:19) was the top Falcon. Powers is trying to rebound from an injury in order to be a factor for BG at the MAC Championships.
Wells knows some things need to improve if the team is going to improve on its fifth-place finish at the MAC Championships last season.
‘We have our sights set on finishing higher than last year. And that’s a challenge,’ she said. ‘There are a lot of quality teams in the conference. It’s a matter of capitalizing on our strengths as a team.’
BG took advantage of a weekend off from competition heading into Friday. Wells said the rest proved to be beneficial. The Falcons have another weekend off before fall break arrives. She said the team will look to take advantage of the opportunity again this time.
‘We got an opportunity to rest both physically and mentally last weekend and heading into this week so the same thing will hold true heading into our home meet in two weeks,’ Wells said.
BG hosts the Falcon Invite on Oct. 17. The invite will be the Falcons’ last before the MAC Championships.
