September 5, 2003
Tiffin, OH - The Bluffton College Women's and Men's Cross Country teams started off their seasons with a competitive invitational co-hosted by Tiffin University and Heidelberg College. It was the Beaver's first competition of the new school year, one of only a few meets the team will run this year.
The day started off with the men's race at the Clinton Heights Golf Course, just outside of Tiffin, as Bluffton put 10 men on the line to start. "The mid-distance guys were only supposed to go three, that's the strategy that we implemented today," said Coach Derek Stanley. Only 6 of the 10 that started the race finished. Junior Andy Schiefer lead the Beavers attack under a different strategy than the mid-distance runners. Schiefer finished in 24th overall in a time of 27:11.5, a personal best for him. Two freshmen followed Schiefer closely to the line. Justin Crites and Dave Espinoza both ran the top two performances by freshman in recent BC history. Crites crossed the finish line in 29th place and Espinoza placed 39th in times of 27:18.1 and 27:38.4, respectively. Running a strong race to finish fourth was sophomore Patrick Cooley who earned 60th place in a time of 28:23.0. Rounding out the top five for the team was freshman Chris Wojciechowski who took 72nd in a 29:01.5. Roy Kaplan also ran for Bluffton taking 93rd in a 31:32.2.
The men finished in 8th out of 10 teams totaling a score of 189. The men beat HCAC Conference rivals Defiance (250) and Mount St. Joseph (271) but fell to the rest of a competitive field.
The women continued the fast paced atmosphere set by the men and ran a decent race of their own. "The women had a race strategy similar to the men, to go out easy and attempt to run even or negative splits. Our women strayed from the strategy a bit, but ended up running a solid race as a whole," said Stanley of his women. Junior Jennifer Niedermier exploded back onto the race seen after a string of injuries kept her out much of last year. Niedermier ran close to her career best finishing the 5,000 meter race in 20:11.1, good for 20th place overall and a 48 second improvement from this race a year before. Second on the team was sophomore Lauren Borga earning 33rd place in a 20:30.8, six seconds better than her time the previous year. Third for the women was Jennifer Creamer, running 38 seconds faster than last year's time finishing in 41st place with a 20:46.5. Just behind Creamer was Carrie Hudecek taking 45th place in 20:57.8. Rounding out the top five for the women was Stephanie Welch finishing in 70th place in a time of 21:53.9. Also running for the women was Rachel Noirot (81st/22:26.6), Lindsay Bryant (84th/22:32.5), Laurie Sanford (85th/22:33.0), Lauren Bailey (86th/22:40.1), and Alicia Stanko (98th/23:25.9)
The women also finished 8th place out of 11 teams summing a score of 186 points. Although the Beavers were defeated by a much-improved Defiance team (78/3rd), they managed to beat Mount St. Joseph (229/9th) in the conference rivalries.
-BEAVERS-