UB cross country weekly release
9/20/2010 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Bulls Finish Third on Home Course in Stampede
Weather conditions were ideal for racing with temperatures in the upper 60s and 10-15 mph winds as the University at Buffalo men's and women's cross country teams hosted the UB Stampede Invitational on Saturday afternoon at Beaver Island State Park. Both UB squads placed third overall behind Mid-American Conference competition.
Beim Paces Women's Finishers
The UB women placed one runner in the top 10 as sophomore Sam Beim finished seventh in 19:20. UB's next four finishers were Brittany Chilson (19:52) in 12th, Emma Denton (19:55) in 14th, Aimee Hopkins (20:02) in 18th and Christine Sprehe (20:04) in 19th. The Bulls ran nearly their entire roster with 15 runners competing among the 63 total entrants.
Bloom Captures Top Ten Placing
Ryan Bloom led the UB men with his 10th-place finish in 26:23. Ryan Zillmann was 17th in 26:45 with Mike Pressler taking 18th in 26:54. Isaac Hagen (27:33) and Aaron Walker (27:40) rounded out UB's top five runners with finishes of 29th and 30th place, respectively. Cord Sgaglio was UB's sixth runne, placing 53rd in 29:14. The Bulls ran just six runners at the meet.
Mitchell's Musings
Head coach Vicki Mitchell commented after the UB Stampede Invitational, "Sam Beim ran a very nice race and competed well on our home course. Our work is now focused on getting more women up there with Sam, and getting Katie Sanders and Ellen Muster [our top 2 runners] back healthy. We had a number of freshmen in their first college race and they ran according to our designed plan." She also remarked about the men's team, "While Ryan Bloom led the way for our UB men, he knows he's ready to compete with the top Akron and Kent men. We ran a lot of our younger men, and rested several of our top men as we prepare for the big meets later in the season, namely the MAC Championships. I am not concerned with our placement behind the two MAC schools, as we will continue to develop and train towards late October."
Seeing the MAC
Including UB, three Mid-American Conference schools were represented at the Stampede Invitational as Akron and Kent State sent men's and women's squads. Both the Zips and Golden Flashes finished ahead of the Bulls in the standings, taking the top two spots in both competitions as UB placed third. The Bulls will face MAC competition two more times before the league championships at the end of October. Ball State, Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan will be among the competition when UB travels to the Notre Dame Invitational on October 1. On October 16, the Bulls will be joined by Akron, Miami (OH) and Western Michigan at the Penn State National Invitational.
