Abby Spitler	Jacob Pessia

The Lady Cougars had a good showing as they finished fifth out of seven teams. John Carroll University won the event with 28 points, while Mount Union College was the runner-up with 56 points. Walsh (96), Ursuline College (113), MVNU (130), Roberts Wesleyan (N.Y.) College (150), and Hiram College (243) rounded out the scoring.

Anna Busta of John Carroll won the individual title as she covered the five-kilometer course in 19:12.3 to finish seven seconds ahead of Chelsey Bruce of Mount Union (19:19.3). Freshman Abby Spitler made her first collegiate race a memorable one for MVNU as she finished eighth out of 100 runners in 19:48.9 to set a new school record by a little over four seconds. Sophomore Jessica Brant, the previous record-holder, was 22nd in 20:31.4, and junior Caitlin Campbell set a new personal best by 15 seconds as she finished 32nd in a time of 20:56.0. Freshman Alex Reasoner (39th, 21:14.1), sophomore Melissa Keiser (57th, 22:27.6), sophomore Amy Chappell (66th, 23:25.6), sophomore Bethany Parks (73rd, 23:39.8), and freshman Katie Worthington (90th, 26:01.1) rounded out the scoring for the Lady Cougars.

"Individually, many of the girls ran excellent times for this point in the year, and I am excited about the coming months of competition,” said MVNU coach Chip Wilson. "We had a new school record performance from Abby today, and I know Jessica is strong enough to run with her. Caitlin ran her best time as a Lady Cougar with Alex having a great first college race right behind her. I was encouraged by how Melissa, Amy, Bethany, and Katie ran and we will be working hard in this coming off week.”

In the men's race, the Cougars finished sixth out of six teams. Mount Union won the event with 20 points as the Purple Raiders grabbed five of the top seven spots individually. Walsh was second with 64 points, and John Carroll was third with 73 points. Roberts Wesleyan (121), Hiram (124), and MVNU (144) rounded out the scoring.

Tyler Griffin of Mount Union claimed the individual title as he covered the eight-kilometer course in 25:57.5 to edge teammate Scott Wolfe (26:12.7) by 15 seconds. Junior Nate Winters led the Cougars by finishing 16th out of 85 runners in 27:23.0. Freshman Jace Wolford was right behind in 27:50.8 to finish 24th in his first collegiate race, while senior David Clark came in 54th in 30:01.7. Freshman Sebastian Rue (58th, 30:23.0), junior Kevin Poast (62nd, 30:33.0), senior Chaz Rice (66th, 31:06.7), sophomore Jacob Pessia (67th, 31:10.1), sophomore Mark Rednour (74th, 32:01.5), sophomore Anthony Lee (75th, 32:06.5, and freshman Mitch McKenzie (76th, 32:07.4) rounded out the scoring with Pessia and Rednour setting new personal bests. Pessia lowered his time by an incredible 1:11 from his best time a year ago.

"Nate and Jace both had very solid performances for the men's team,” said Wilson. "We will be looking for those two to lead the way for us this year. Many of these guys ran in their first college 8K today. Even though it was a new experience, I was proud of them. Looking over our times, we do have some work to do. However, these guys are willing to put in the effort and I believe we will see some major improvements in our times.”

The MVNU teams will return to action on September 25 when they travel to the Otterbein College Invitational. The men's race will start at 10:30 a.m. with the women's race to follow at 11:15 a.m.

"I was very encouraged by the effort I saw from both the men's and women's teams,” said Wilson. "We were able to run against a few conference teams in Walsh, Roberts Wesleyan, and Ursuline and I thought our runners competed well. Looking over the results it is obvious that we need to close the gap between our lead runner and our fifth runner on both the men's and women's teams. This will be our focus in the coming weeks before Otterbein.”