In the women’s five-kilometer race, the Lady Cougars finished third out of five teams. Cedarville University, ranked No. 2 in the NAIA preseason poll and last year’s national runner-up, won the event with 24 points, while host Shawnee State (which received votes in the preseason poll) was a close second with 33 points. MVNU finished with 85 points to place ahead of Ohio Dominican University (107 points) and Ohio Valley (W.V.) University (144 points).

Katie Gillespie of Cedarville won the women’s race as she covered the course in 18:06 to edge out the next closest runner, teammate Lydia Wong, by 18 seconds. The story of the day, though, was MVNU freshman Jessica Brant who shattered the school record with a time of 19:53 to blow away the previous mark of 21:11 set by former Lady Cougar Lauren Hall in 2006 at the American Mideast Conference meet. Brant finished 10th out of 60 runners in the race. Sophomore Caitlin Campbell came within six seconds of her own personal best with a time of 21:24 as she finished 21st. Freshman Hannah Fertig (22:34, 27th), senior Tara Patrick (23:12, 29th), freshman Melissa Keiser (23:32, 30th), sophomore Nikki Yates (23:48, 32nd), and freshman Bethany Parks (24:41, 41st) each set personal bests, while sophomore Katelyn Felger (24:41, 40th), sophomore DeAnna Hardeman (27:14, 50th), and senior Brittany Click (28:22, 54th) rounded out the times for the Lady Cougars.

“Jessica went out hard against two of the top teams in our league (Cedarville and Shawnee State) and finished a great race,” said MVNU coach Chip Wilson of his freshman who became the first female runner in school history to break the 20-minute mark. Like the other girls on our team, our goal now is to work on going out hard and maintaining that pace for the entire race. I was also very pleased with the way our women’s team stepped up and I think it could be an exciting year.”

In the men’s eight-kilometer race, the Cougars finished second out of five teams. The host Bears of Shawnee State, who are ranked No. 18 in the NAIA preseason poll, won the event with 15 points, while MVNU finished with 56 points. Ohio Dominican (94 points), Kentucky Christian University (113 points), and Ohio Valley (121 points) rounded out the field.

Corey Culbertson of Shawnee State won the men’s race as he covered the course in 25:44 to edge out teammate Galen Dills who finished in 25:47. Senior Mark Porostosky (left) was the top finisher for the Cougars as he came in ninth out of 54 runners in a time of 26:35. Sophomore Nate Winters just missed a new personal best as he finished 11th in 26:55. Seniors Kenny Alexander (30:22, 27th), Dustin Wine (30:41, 29th), and Joe Pittenger (31:17, 31st), sophomore Jameson Seymour (31:23, 33rd), freshman Anthony Lee (31:24, 34th), junior David Clark (32:53, 40th), freshman Mark Rednour (34:28, 44th), and freshman Jacob Pessia (36:05, 47th) rounded out the times for the Cougars.

“The men’s team also had a promising start,” said Wilson. “Coming into the race, I knew we were faced with some challenges due to injuries and lack of college running experience. However, I was excited to see the determination that our runners showed in finishing this race. Leading the way with two strong finishes were Mark and Nate. Both of these guys have been training well together and it showed in the way they ran. I was very impressed with how they competed.”

MVNU will be back in action on Saturday, September 19, when both teams will take part in the Cedarville Friendship Invitational. The women’s race is slated to start at 10:00 a.m. with the men’s race to follow at 10:45 a.m.

“I am very encouraged by the way our athletes ran at Shawnee State,” said Wilson. “They have all been working hard to better themselves as runners and I was pleased with the way they ran at our first race. Because we have so many new runners on the team, I was not sure what to expect from a live race situation, but we now have a starting point and we can begin to work on different areas that need improvement.”