CROSS COUNTRY

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TERRE HAUTE, IN - The University at Buffalo's men's and women's cross country squads saw some of the stiffest competition of the year at the Asics/Pacesetter NCAA Pre-Nationals hosted by Indiana State University.

Jerimie Slick

UB's men placed seventh among 24 teams in the Open Division with 214 points while the Bulls' women took ninth in a 29-team field with 310 points. Mid-American Conference rival Central Michigan won the men's meet with 97 points while Brigham Young cruised easily to the women's title with 18 points. Several other schools, including national powers Stanford and Colorado fielded individual runners in the races but did not have enough entrants to comprise a team for scoring purposes.

UB senior Jerimie Slick (Rochester, NY/Greece-Olympia) topped his career-best 8K mark with a 24:35.9 clocking to finish second overall, six seconds behind Montana's Antony Ford (24:29.3) in the 254-runner field. Slick's time bettered his previous best of 24:52.97 set last month at the Miami Fall Classic. It was the second time this season that Slick has completed an 8K race in under 25 minutes.

Joining Slick among UB's finishers was Rick Stewart (West Seneca, NY/West Seneca West) at 25:32.7 to place eighth among complete-team entrants and 21st overall. Todd Ludden (Hornell, NY/Hornell) was 40th overall and 23rd in the full-team competition in 25:50.5. In the race, 151 runners cross the finish line to score points for their teams.

Melissa Burrows

In the women's 6K race, senior Melissa Burrows (Norwood, NY/Norwood-Norfolk) led the Bulls in 22:25.9 to take 29th in the team race and 44th overall among the 275 runners. Jenny Koeppel (Amherst, NY/Amherst) was UB's next finisher in 22:58.0 for 75th overall and 45th in the team competition. Among the 275 runners, 171 scored for their teams.

With the tuneups now complete, the Bulls face the final exam, the Mid-American Conference Championships on November 2 in Oxford, OH.