BOWLING GREEN, OH - The Toledo men's and women's cross country teams came away with a pair of wins over MAC rival Bowling Green in their season opener on Friday. A pair of UT sophomores, Kristal Studer and Nick Thomas, picked up their first collegiate cross country wins en route to the pair of victories, 17-46 (men) and 15-46 (women).
"This was a great day of racing for our teams," said Toledo Head Coach Kevin Hadsell. "I said going in I only wanted to see tough running. Toledo tough running and they did that. The freshmen were able to handle this type of pressure right away and they ran really, really well."
The win was the fifth straight win for the Toledo men over Bowling Green in the annual meet, and they improved their overall record to 6-2-0 in the dual. The Rockets had the top four runners, and their score of 17 set the meet record for lowest team score. This year's victory betters 2009, as the Rockets forced Bowling Green to a 17-46 score as opposed to the 17-40 score registered last season. Following Thomas for Toledo were freshman Jacob Barnes (second), junior Jon DeWitt (third) and senior Elisha Kipchumba (fourth). The Rockets also took the seventh and eighth spots with Barnabas Kiprotich and Trevin Flickinger, respectively.
"Nick made a move with about a mile to go and never looked back," said Hadsell. "The other guys responded wel,l and we were able to really push hard the last mile. We ran conservatively as a pack for the first mile but opened it up after that."
The Rocket women harriers completed their second straight sweep over Bowling Green in the dual meet. The group of freshmen and sophomore runners registered a perfect score, the second of only two perfect scores in meet history (the first coming last season). Following Studer to round out the top five were freshmen Megan Vogelsong (second) and Megan Wright (third), sophomore Samantha Condron (fourth) and freshman Jessica Phillips (fifth).
"Kristal is one of the people I singled-out at the beginning of the year as having made a noticeable jump in her abilities over the summer," Hadsell said. "Today she ran tough and will only continue to improve."
The Rockets were without one of their most talented sophomores in returning All-MAC runner Devyn Ramsay, who ws held out of the race to remain on the same training schedule as the other top UT runners.
"Devyn is in a great training rythm, and I don't want to disrupt that, even though her sophomore classmates were running," said Hadsell.
Overall, Hadsell was impressed with the showing of several of the newest Rocket women in their collegiate debut. Three of the four female newcomers finished in the top five, with fellow freshman Liz Lemon taking 10th.
"Megan Vogelsong, Megan Wright and Jess Phillips showed me something today," said Hadsell. "Their summer training went great and they are very fit, very talented and very tough. They are only going to continue to get better and that makes us incredibly deep."
Both teams will take the next three weeks to train and prepare for the Roy Griak Invitational, where they will face some of the top teams in the country. The men will be looking to move up in the regional rankings from their No. 15 spot, while the women will be looking to earn their seventh national ranking in the last 11 years.
