Opening its season in the same fashion as last year, the cross-country team returned to the Tommy Evans Invitational for the second consecutive season.
The Buffalo women's squad had 41 points to Akron's 25 points and the men's side compiled 44 points just behind the Zips' 31 points. Both totals were good enough for a second-place finish, as the team with the least amount of points wins.
A trio of top five finishers led the Bulls on the women's side. Junior Aleksandra Bykowska was the top Buffalo runner in the race, finishing in third place with a time of 19:38. Just behind her was senior Kate Kohout, with a 19:47 fourth-place finish and sophomore Jessica Schultz finished in fifth with a 19:50 run.
"The three ran as a pack for about a mile and a half, then pushed and separated," said Buffalo head coach Vicki Mitchell. "Aleks was a little tentative since she had a foot injury in the summer time. Kate ran strong and Jess had a personal best and definitely stepped it up a level from last year. I'm real pleased with the three of them."
Freshman Christine Sprehe was the next fastest runner for the women's squad, finishing in 13th place with a time of 20:37.
Two Akron runners finished on the very top of the women's heap. Sophomore Colleen Moran took first while teammate freshman Sediah Erskine landed in second. Moran's 19:14 finish was just five seconds ahead of Erskine's run.
On the men's side, senior David Welby had the top finish for the Bulls. Welby ran the four-mile race in 21:43 for a fifth-place finish.
"Dave was great," Mitchell said. "This is only his second season running cross-country and I thought he ran fantastic. He ran a pretty good paced race. I thought he ran real well."
The next fastest Bull was freshman Jason Ayer. Ayer completed the course in 21:52 for a seventh-place finish. Senior Paul Riley and Sophomore Dan Healy also had top 10 finishes for the Bulls. Riley's 22:05 placed him in ninth and Healy's 22:06 put him in 10th place overall.
The Zips' junior Jason Headman won the race with a time of 21:06. Headman was one of four Akron runners to finish in the top six.
Overall, Mitchell was content with the results of the meet as a lot of newer faces ran in the event.
"It went ok," Mitchell said. "Our main goal was to get the new freshmen an opportunity to compete. We didn't run a lot of returnees on the guy's side. It went pretty good for an introductory meet."
Seniors Dan McKenna and Andy Leonard, and junior Dan Giza did not compete in the race, but they are on the roster and competed last season.
Although other sporting events in Ohio experienced stormy weather, Buffalo did not have to deal with any precipitation where the meet was held in Firestone Park.
"The course was a state park and it was hot, humid and sunny," Mitchell said. "It was a shock to the system to us, seeing that we were used to the cooler level. It was uneven terrain but there was no problem with mud or anything."
Akron and Buffalo were the only two Mid-American Conference schools at the Invitational. Two other schools, Youngstown State and John Carroll, had entries in both the men and women events as well. Youngstown State's men's team finished in third with 61 points and its women's team took fifth with 129 points. The men's squad had 96 points for John Carroll for a fourth-place finish and its women's side had 74 points to place in third.
Cleveland State had runners at the event as well but only for the women's 5k race. Its runners amassed 114 points to finish the event in fourth-place.
Buffalo's next meet is on Saturday at the University of Toledo Invitational. The race begins at 11 a.m.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
