TOLEDO, OH - Ari Fisher continued her success on the course for the Toledo women's cross country team, taking 13th overall in a field of 274 of the nation's top runners and leading the Toledo women to a top-ten finish and an all-time MAC best finish of ninth.
The Rocket women beat out several ranked opponents in a very competitve field, including No. 37 Arizona State, No. 27 Florida and No. 31 Harvard. They finished with 342 points, just one point behind the eighth-place NC State and just 31 points behind No. 19 Michigan who finished seventh.
"The team ran incredibly well," said Head Coach Kevin Hadsell. "Our times were slowed by the slow early pace of the race, but in this sport the times don't matter and the place does. We ran tough, we ran it Toledo-style and that's what I wanted to see. We are now turning our attention to the MAC Championships and placing ourselves in a position to challenge for another MAC title and I feel as though we placed ourselves in a position to earn our first-ever NCAA bid. We beat the teams we needed to in regards to Rice, Florida, Georgia, Harvard and we also avenged our Griak loss to Arizona State as well."
The team's 9th place finish is the highest-ever finish by a MAC school at the Pre-NCAA Invitational, besting their previous school and MAC record of 12th in 2002. Fisher finished 13th after leading most of the race, and her top-15 finish was also the best finish since 2002, when Briana Shook earned 10th place.
"Ari made the mistake of pushing too hard, too early," said Hadsell. "Our race got out way slower than the first race so she felt really good. However, she now knows to wait and push the last 1000-meters."
The men's team also competed in the white race, matching up with a host of tough opponents, including nine members of the national top-30. Toledo finished 31st overall in the 8K race, led by junior captain Jonathan DeWitt (112th, 25:10.2). DeWitt was closely followed by Barnabas Kiprotich (143rd, 25:31.2), Nick Thomas (144th, 25:32.4), Elisha Kipchumba (166th, 25:45.6) and Jacob Barnes (214th, 26:32.1), wrapping up the top-five for UT.
Several Rockets also competed in the Open Race at the Pre-Nationals including Ricky Adamson (86th, 26:57.2), Trevin Flickinger (97th, 27:11.2), Nick Brenner (114th, 27:58.2), David Moore (121st, 28:37.8) and Joel Kozlesky (124th, 29:17.0) for the men, and Samantha Condron (18th, 22:23.7), Megan Vogelsong (20th, 22:26.9), Elizabeth Lemon (54th, 23:08.5), Amber Cushnie (57th, 23:13.3) and Jessica Phillips (103rd, 23:59.7) for the women.
A group of Rockets also competed in the BGSU Falcon Invitational on Saturday in Bowling Green, OH. Derek Pohlman (142nd, 28:36.1) and Taylor Durczynski (156th, 29:15.3) raced for the men, while Lei Bornhorst (22nd, 22:41.6), Hannah Brisson (25th, 22:46.1), Amanda Mannon (66th, 23:29.5) and Ali Fisher (104th, 24:41.3) competed for the women.
Ahead on the schedule for the Rocket runners, Toledo will compete in the Eastern Michigan Invitational on Oct. 22nd, leading up to the MAC Championships the following weekend on Oct. 30 in Kalamazoo, MI.
