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Falcons look to Improve in 2009 Image

Falcons look to Improve in 2009

Mon, Aug, 31 | Men's Cross Country

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - With the cross country season getting ready to start in a week and a half, the Bowling Green men's cross country team is looking to improve on the finish to the 2008 season.

With plenty of hard work in the off-season and now in preseason practices, Coach Cami Wells is looking for the team to show improvement from last fall.

“The goal for this season is the same as it always is as far as getting the most we can out of each person,” Wells said. “We want to have the best success that we can as a team, so after the season ended last fall, we regrouped and thought about what was needed for this upcoming fall and from that point on they've been working hard to get in shape for this season.

“They came in in good shape, we got a good summer of training in and got a good week of practices in and now it's just work hard throughout the season and build from week to week in practices. Once we get into competitions, evaluate what we need to work on to get ready for that next competition.”

With a roster that consists of no seniors, one might think the Falcons would be lacking experience and leadership. But according to Wells several runners have stepped up into those roles.

“Our captains this year are Chris Moody, John Bernard and Jesse Smuda, so I expect them to be leaders,” she said.

Moody was the Falcons top runner a season ago and has improved even more in preparation for this season.

“As far as in competition, Chris Moody was our top runner last year, he has come in in even better shape than last fall even and I expect that he will continue to make improvements this year.”

Moody, who was the Falcons top finisher in every race last season, won the Toledo Dual with a time 15.59 in a 5K race. He placed 48th at the MAC Championships with a time of 26.34 in an 8K race.

Smuda, a junior, should also be top runner for the Orange and Brown after coming to practices in strong shape.

Smuda was the number two runner in half of the races last year and placed 55th at the MAC Championships crossing the finish line in 27.26.

Peter Myles, a sophomore, has improved tremendously from his freshman season and expected to contribute to the Falcons this season.

“Peter Myles has improved a lot since last year,” Wells said. “He is a sophomore, so we expected it to take him a year to adjust to the longer distances from high school and he's done a really nice job with that.”
With only ten runners on the roster, everyone will get a chance to race this season as the players stay away from injuries.

“At this point so everybody will be in position to race as long as they are fit and ready to go,” Wells said.

Juniors Abraham Busienei, Jeff Ehler, Johnstone Kirui and Erik Kuehner as well as sophomore Ben Leininger and freshman Jason Salyer complete the men's team roster.

Kent State, which finished third at the MAC Championship a season ago, was picked by the coaches as the favorite to take home the title this fall. Miami, Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan round out the top four teams. Bowling Green was picked to finish ninth.

“It's always tough in this conference,” Wells said of the MAC. “We've always got a lot of good long distance runners and distance coaches.

“On the men's side, there were a lot of losses to graduation, so we'll have to see how that looks for the season. I expect that Miami, Eastern Michigan and Kent State will all be really strong again this year, they have been historically in the past.”

The Falcons open up the 2009 season when they head up Interstate 75 to take on the Toledo Rockets in a Dual Meet set to begin at 7 p.m. on September 4.

A complete cross country schedule can be found HERE.