Men Place Second, Women Finish Third at Falcon Invite

Ryan Bloom

BOWLING GREEN, OH – The University at Buffalo men's and women's cross country teams finished near the top of the standings on Saturday at the Bowling Green Falcon Invitational to complete the regular season. The men's team took second with 68 points, trailing only victorious Toledo with 63. The UB women scored 62 overall points to take third behind Bowling Green (28) and Toledo (43).

UB sophomore Ryan Bloom (Spencerport, NY/Spencerport) paced the Bulls with a third-place finish in the men's 8K race. Bloom finished the course in 25:03.82 to set a season-best mark and cut 43 seconds from his previous best (25:46) set at the Paul Short Invitational on October 3. Bloom finished six seconds behind first place Alex Russeau of Siena Heights and was the top Mid-American Conference runner in the field. A total of 108 runners composed the men's field.

Mary Veith

The Bulls also four other finishers among the top 30. Jacob Hagen (Amherst, NY/Sweet Home) finished seventh in 25:21.87. Chris Allen (Gansevoort, NY/Saratoga Springs) took 16th place in 25:45.60. Dylan Conway (Commack, NY/Hauppauge) finished 18th in 25:47.35 and Scott Dickover (Middletown, NY/Middletown) placed 27th in 26:09.00 to complete the UB scoring. All four times were season bests as the Bowling Green course has proven to give UB its best times over the last two seasons.

The UB women were paced by senior Mary Veith (Derby, NY/Lake Shore). Veith took third in a 121-woman field with a 6K clocking of 22:01.96. Veith finished behind a pair of Bowling Green runners, Kara Butler (21:41.15) and Jamie Roflow (21:55.02). Runners from the three MAC women's schools in attendance (UB, Bowling Green and Toledo) comprised the top 11 finishers and 19 of the top 20.

Jessica Schultz

Among those Bulls finishing in the top 20 were seniors Jessica Schultz (Rochester, NY/Eastridge) and Alex Bykowska (Poznan, Poland/Third High School of Poznan) and sophomore Ellen Muster (Marion, NY/Marion). Schultz finished fifth in 22:23.09. Bykowska placed 15th in 22:59.37 and Muster was 19th in 23:11.82. All three times were season-best results for the Bulls.

UB will see the rest of the league in their next meet, the MAC Championships. Hosted this season at Eastern Michigan, the meet is slated for November 1 with the men's championship at 11:00 am and the women's championship at noon.