Over the weekend the Bulls cross-country teams crossed the Great Lakes to participate in the Spartan Invitational, hosted by Michigan State. The Bulls were one of several teams from the Mid-American and Big Ten Conferences to race at the invite, which was not officially scored.
Senior runner Mary Veith competed in her first race of the season, coming in 13th place on the 6K course. Rain proved a major factor for Veith, causing her to fall behind her competitors. She finished with a time of 22:18, crossing the finish line behind six Michigan State runners and three from Miami (OH).
However, Bulls head coach Vicki Mitchell was very impressed with Veith after the meet.
"[She] ran a great race," Mitchell said. "The strategy for her was to go out a little more controlled and conservative in the first mile than she would normally race. She ended up just cleaning up on the last two miles and ended up passing about 30 or 40 women. I was very, very pleased with that."
Other strong performers for the women included senior Jessica Schultz and junior Nicole Soblosky. Schultz finished in 23:02, grabbing 32nd place, while Soblosky was the next Bull to cross the finish line, coming in 34th place with a time at 23:03. The winner of the race was Michigan State senior runner Nicole Bush with a time of 21:12.
The men, running in the 8K race, also put in an overall mediocre invite performance. Sophomore runner Jacob Hagen was the Bulls top finisher with a time of 26:44, placing him 45th out of a field of 174 competitors. He managed to cut 42 seconds off of his time from last season at the East Lansing course. As a freshman, he finished in 70th place with a time of 27:26.
The next best Bulls runners were sophomore Ryan Bloom and freshman Dylan Conway. Bloom finished with a time of 27:09 and a 58th place finish while Conway took 62nd place.
"Jake and Ryan ran very good races," Mitchell said. "Dylan, in his first race ever, learned a lot about how going out too fast is going to kill him. He did that today but was still able to hold on. We look at the fact that we have a lot of young guys on the men's side that are leading the way and it's the bright side for us."
The invite was a great opportunity for the Bulls to get a grasp of where they are in contrast to some top programs in the country.
"It's an interesting meet, because we don't have team scoring," Mitchell said. "It's one of the reasons I like going to it because we can take some risks in this type of meet without consequences in terms of how we place."
Mitchell is pleasantly surprised with the chemistry developing among her young squad.
"It's the best group ever," Mitchell said. "We have an incredibly hard-working group. They're very close, they want to work hard and they really motivate each other. I'm really fired up about it."
Though early in the season, Mitchell expressed encouragement towards the entire team performance in the first two outings of the season.
"Overall, I'm pleased with what we got out of the meet," Mitchell said. "Which is really a learning experience of pacing ourselves, running with our teammates and getting some team work in."
The Bulls head home this weekend for the UB Stampede Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 20. The invite will take place at Beaver Island State Park on Grand Island. The women's team will race at noon while the men will run at 12:45 p.m.
