Ohio Falls to Bowling Green

By Jonathan Kane
Staff Writer

The Ohio men's cross country team played host to its first dual meet of the season when it welcomed Bowling Green. The Falcons proved to be rough company, however, by beating the Bobcats 17-41 at the Ohio University Golf Course.

The match-up pitted a veteran Bowling Green squad against primarily youthful group in Ohio's team.

Ohio runner Andrew Frum led the pack of runners through the first mile and a half before Bowling Green's Grant Shadden and Tom Cutter took the lead.

From the two-mile mark on, Shadden and Cutter stayed in front and Ohio runner Steve Krajenski moved into third place. There was a battle in the middle of the pack as four Bowling Green runners and five Ohio runners struggled for scoring places.

"They really took it to us at the two-mile mark," Ohio coach Elmore Banton said. "They did a very good job of picking up the pace and really putting it to us."

As the race continued through the final three miles, Bowling Green's veteran runners overtook Ohio's youthful team. Four Bowling Green runners would finish in front of Ohio's top two finishers, Krajenski and Frum.

Shadden won the race in a time of 26 minutes and 2 seconds, while Tom Kutter, Paul Niedzwiecki and Justin Perez rounded out the top four place finishes for Bowling Green.

Brandon Grinwis, Justin Kempe and Jason Linton finished out Ohio's scoring finishing ninth, tenth and eleventh respectively.

Banton said Krajenski ran a good race, but the team needs the other experienced runners on the team to move up a level.

"Without them being where they belong, we're not going to beat too many people," he said.

Krajenski, Ohio's top finisher, said the team did perform to their capability in the loss.

"We learned a couple of lessons of where we are and where we need to go," Krajenski said. "We've been training hard and it is through the result of a lot of hard work. We were a little fatigued today."

The Bobcats have another week to prepare for two quality Mid-American Conference opponents. Ohio's faces Kent State and Western Michigan Sep.15 at the Ohio University Golf Course.