Jessica Brant	Jace Wolford

In the women's race, Malone University repeated as conference champs as the Lady Pioneers had six of the top nine individual finishers in compiling just 25 points. Cedarville University was the runner-up for the second straight year after capturing four straight AMC titles prior to that as the Lady Jackets finished with 45 points. Houghton (78 points), Walsh University (146 points), and Ursuline College (162 points) rounded out the top five with the Lady Cougars finishing sixth with 176 points.

Individually, Houghton's Danielle Brenon covered the five-kilometer course in 17:40.5 to edge Malone teammates Tynae Wilson (17:53.6) and Erin Bauer (17:57.2) for the title. Sophomore Jessica Brant led MVNU with a personal best time of 19:52.6 as she finished 36th out of 120 runners. Freshman Abby Spitler was right behind at 20:02.3 in 38th place, while junior Caitlin Campbell (20:35.0, 47th), freshman Alex Reasoner (20:56.9, 59th), sophomore Melissa Keiser (21:54.2, 81st), sophomore Bethany Parks (22:47.2, 90th), sophomore Amy Chappell (23:05.7, 96th), and freshman Katie Worthington (24:05.0, 109th) rounded out the finishers for the Lady Cougars with Keiser, Parks, and Worthington each posting new personal best times.

"The women's team had their best overall team time of the season with an average of 20:43,” said Wilson. "It was great to see Jessica, Bethany, Melissa, and Katie have their best times of the year. I was proud of the girls today because they did not hold anything back throughout the race. I could tell they were giving it everything they had, and they performed to the best of their ability. I am excited about the future of this team and I look forward to continuing to build this program.”

In the men's race, Malone captured its 18th straight conference title as the Pioneers finished with 29 points to outdistance runner-up Cedarville (45 points). Walsh (130 points), Houghton (132 points), and Notre Dame College (148 points) rounded out the top five with the Cougars coming in ninth with 212 points – just one point behind eighth-place Daemen (N.Y.) College.

James Zeuch of Malone captured the individual title in 24:43.6 with a 4:58/mile pace over the eight-kilometer course to finish over 33 seconds ahead of runner-up Matt Brooker of Cedarville (25:16.8). Junior Nate Winters led MVNU by finishing 31st out of 105 runners in 26:56.3, while freshman Jace Wolford set a new personal best of 27:44.2 as he came in 49th. Freshman Sebastian Rue (29:21.2, 71st), senior David Clark (29:23.1, 73rd), junior Kevin Poast (30:10.5, 85th), senior Chaz Rice (30:21.8, 89th), sophomore Anthony Lee (30:47.6, 92nd), sophomore Mark Rednour (31:17.2, 94th), sophomore Jacob Pessia (31:37.0, 96th), and freshman Mitch McKenzie (31:40.8, 97th) rounded out the finishers for the Cougars with Rice, Rednour, and McKenzie posting season-best times.

"The men's team has dealt with a lot of inexperience this season, but we have slowly made progress throughout the year,” said Wilson. "I was proud of these guys today even if the scores do not reflect anything positive. I think our inexperience showed today, but these guys did not back down. They got out hard and tried their best to leave everything they had on the course.”

MVNU will close out the 2010 season next Saturday when the teams travel to Cedarville for the National Christian College Athletic Association Meet. The women's race is slated to start at 10 a.m. with the men's race to follow at 11 a.m.