Crossing Expectations

After great performances in past Mid-American Conference Championships, the men's and women's cross-country teams came into this year's meet with high expectations. The men's team had two All-MAC competitors on its side and women's team sought to gain momentum from this year's success.

The teams consider some of those expectations well-met.

Buffalo traveled to a muddy Athens, Ohio over Halloween weekend to give their MAC rivals heavy competition in the sloppy conditions. They ran in similar conditions in the previous weekend's Reif Memorial meet, tuning them up for the championship meet.

The men's team finished fifth out of the nine teams with 147 points on the 8k Ohio University course. Buffalo's fifth-place finish was their best MAC Championship result since 2001. Graduate student Dennis Pollow was the team's top finisher, finishing at 14th place out of a field of 79 runners with a time of 26:26.4.

Pollow, whose performance secured him a Second Team All-MAC selection, finished tenths of a second behind Kent State's Joe Purpura (26:26.0). The finish makes it the second-straight year Buffalo has had a runner selected as an All-MAC honoree after junior Ryan Bloom was honored last season.

'Dennis Pollow ran a tough race,' said head coach Vicki Mitchell. 'He went out with the top pack and held on to make second-team All-MAC.'

Pollow ran a torrid pace of 5:20 per mile in the duel with Purrow. He was followed by Bloom, who finished in 22th place with a time of 26:47.6. Junior Chris Allen finished in 35th with a time of 27:15.2. Junior Jacob Hagen crossed the finish line in 27:14.2, and sophomore Dylan Conway finished in 27:31.2.

Kent State won its first-ever cross-country title with 30 points. The team was led by senior Aimon Scullion, who finished in first place with a time of 25:32.7 and a 5:09 mile pace. Eastern Michigan, Central Michigan and Miami (Ohio) followed respectively.

Unlike the men's team, the women's team failed to muster a successful event and finished last out of 12 teams with a score of 317 out of the 12 teams. Its top finisher, sophomore Ellen Muster, came at 47th place with a time of 24:10.2. She ran at a pace of 6:29 per mile and finished just six tenths of a second ahead of Western Michigan's Jenna Matthews.

The other scoring runners were freshman Katie Sanders at 58th place with a time of 24:23.6 and junior Jackie Bozich at 74th place in 25:03.4. Freshman Sam Beim and Leah Wightman rounded off the field, placing 76th and 77th with times of 25:09.5 and 25:10.8 respectively. They were the only Buffalo freshmen that ran the championships.

Christina Sphere proved to be a disappointment for the team. After finishing in the top 10 at the Reif Memorial Run, she failed to score any points this time around. Sphere finished 93rd out of 104 with a time of 25:41.7.

To Mitchell, Bloom's and Sphere's performances were unexpected.

'[Ryan Bloom] and [Christina Sphere] didn't have their best performances,' Mitchell said. 'But [the race] was in tough conditions.'

Miami (Ohio)'s women team repeated as MAC champions with a score of 44 points. Sophomore Ari Fisher of Toledo came first in the individual standings with at time of 22:18.8, 12 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Alexandra Lizarribar of Kent State.

Considering the results, the team as a whole considers the track meet a success.

'The team is really happy with themselves,' Mitchell said. 'It was a tough race and we hanged in there.'

Buffalo is en route to Boston on Saturday, Nov. 14 for the NCAA Northeast Regional meet. The men's competition starts 2:30 p.m. followed by the women's competition.

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