Both the men's and women's cross country teams continued their recent surge at their home meet Saturday, beating several Division III and junior college teams at Beaver Island State Park.
Jenny Koeppel once again led the women's team with a time of 17:59.35. Head coach Vicki Mitchell said she was pleased with her top runner's consistent play.
"She is having a very solid season so far, and I think it's just in line with what she's been doing over the last couple years," said Mitchell. "She is definitely our top runner and one of the top runners in the conference. It's exciting to see all her hard work start to pay off."
Following closely behind Koeppel and giving the Bulls a total of four runners in the top six, and six out of the top ten on the day were Jen Jezorski, Aleksandra Bykowska, Jennie Donofrio, Brigid Horigan, and Megan Housel. The women finished second, fourth, fifth, eighth and tenth, respectively.
Buffalo preceded the UB open with a relatively easy week at practice and the team will also take it easy this upcoming week, with just some light practices as they prepare to face much stiffer competition next Saturday at Penn State.
"This week was actually a little low key for both the men's and the women's teams," said Mitchell. "Our main goal was to have a solid race."
In the men's race, Andy Wigton led UB with a second place finish and a time of 26:10.38, just 10 seconds out of first place. First place was taken by Roberts Wesleyan freshman Julius Rono.
Mitchell said she was impressed with Wigton's race.
"Andy is getting stronger as he comes along. He had a solid summer, but not a high mileage summer, so he was ready to really start to train at the beginning of the season," she said. "Now that we're seven weeks into the season, he's really starting to show the benefits of his training and hopefully with another two weeks he'll be able to get even stronger and better for the MAC championships in Toledo."
Wigton credited the support of the fans for his accomplishments.
"We had a lot of fans come out and support us in our athletes for athletes event. It was great to see them all, and I know it helped me. It was a great adrenaline rush," he said.
Nate Lockett followed 33 seconds behind Wigton to take third, with spots five through ten in the race secured by UB runners Nate Lockett, John Flor, Steve Strelick, Ben Cady, Brian Smith, Onile White and Andy Leonard.
Mitchell was very pleased with the turnout by the fans at the meet and she hopes turnouts like this will continue to be large in the future.
"Our athletes loved having people all over the course," she said. "I'm hoping that with the AFA and the fact that the teams are doing well this year the fans will continue to come out and see the competition."
UB will travel to the Penn State Invitational next Saturday, where there will be nationally ranked teams running against the Bulls. The Penn State Invitational will serve as a strong tune-up for the MAC Championships in Toledo on Oct. 30.
