On a summer-like day at Beaver Island State Park on Grand Island, the Buffalo Bulls cross country teams found some success in their only home meet of the season.
Both the women's team and the men's team placed third in their respective divisions at the UB Stampede Invitational. The annual event, held at Beaver Island State Park, also featured the University of Akron, Bucknell University and Binghamton University.
For the men's team event, Binghamton team came out on top, while the Akron Zips earned a victory in the women's event.
The Buffalo teams scored 73 points each in the overall standings.
Buffalo head coach Vicki Mitchell, the race director, was pleased with the turnout for the event and was proud of how the Bulls teams did on their home turf.
"From the team standpoint, two third places in an 11-team invite are pretty darn good for us," Mitchell said.
The 10 women's teams all ran the 5K-race which had a close finish with Akron coming out on top. Zips runner Kim Lorentz set a new course record at the race, finishing 28 seconds before Buffalo senior runner Mary Veith. Veith finished six seconds ahead of Binghamton runner Katie Radzik.
Senior Jessica Shultz, junior Nicole Soblosky and senior Alex Bykowska finished in the top 20. Shultz crossed the finish line in 11th place, Soblosky came in right behind her and Bykowska finished 20th of 104 total runners.
Mitchell feels that the girls are starting to mesh well as a team.
"It is the next step in the process of many getting to the [Mid-American Conference] Championships," Mitchell said.
Mitchell felt that the women ran a very good race, working on what they needed to get better at. She also said that some of the women were first time runners and it was good to get them to go out and run for the first time.
Sophomore runner Jackie Bozich finished 30th overall and feels that there is room for personal improvement.
"I didn't do what I wanted to do, but I'm still happy with my race," Bozich said.
The men's team ran an 8K race, with five runners placing in the top 25 and two in the top 10. Sophomore Ryan Bloom earned seventh place overall and Jacob Hagen finished in ninth place. Junior Ryan Zillman placed 21st, freshman Dylan Canway finished 22nd and junior Scott Dickover was 24th.
"The men had great competition today," Mitchell said. "I'm pleased with the progress that we made."
Mitchell said that her main goal for the team was to have them each run their best personal times and that the course was in optimal running condition for that. Many of the runners accomplished Mitchell's goal and they were able to set personal records for the course.
"Our preparation will be train hard, race every other weekend and continue to push ourselves," she said.
The next race for the cross country teams takes place on Oct. 3 at the Lehigh Paul Short Invite in Bethlehem, Pa.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
