Oct. 3, 2008

Final Results

South Bend, Ind. - The Grand Valley State men's and women's cross country teams put together a terrific day of running in South Bend, Ind. on Friday afternoon (Oct. 3) at the 53rd running of the Notre Dame Invitational. Both teams earned second-place finishes in the Gold Division, as Grand Valley State competed against 22 other teams from Divisions I, II, III, and NAIA schools.

GVSU men's team recorded a score of 104, finishing behind champion North Central College, which totaled 93 points. The Lakers finished well ahead of Stevens Point-UW (125), Calvin College (149), and Windsor (159), which rounded out the top five.

The women's team scored 93 points, finishing second behind champion Michigan State, which tallied a score of 76. Like their male counterparts, the women finished comfortably in second place, ahead of Northwestern (136), Calvin College (155), and Illinois State (165).

For the men, six of the top seven finishers for GVSU have freshman eligibility, led by redshirt freshman Tyler Emmorey. Emmorey came in 11th place with a time of 25:12, while senior Chris Hammer was not far behind at 25:19, good for 16th place.

Freshman Anthony Witt was 23rd with a time of 25:29, while rookie Ryan Toth came in 26th at 25:35. Fellow freshman Paul Zielinski was 28th with a time of 25:41 and newcomer Jeff Nordquist was 34th at 25:45.

On the women's side, Grand Valley State placed seven runners in the top-50, led by sophomore Megan Maceratini, who finished ninth with a time of 17:54. Sophomores Amy Kolin was 13th at 18:04 and Katherine McCarthy rounded out the top-20 with at time of 18:11.

The sophomores continued the strong pace, as sophomore Rebecca Winchester finished at 18:18 in 25th place and senior Kelly Gibbons was 26th, just one second behind Winchester at 18:19. Another sophomore, Katie Alfredson was 32nd at 18:24 and Eileen Creutz came in 36th place at 18:30.

"Both squads ran very well today, competing against some great Division I teams and some highly-ranked Division III and NAIA teams," said head coach Jerry Baltes. "It is a great step forward for our squads and we look forward to progressing through the end of the season and hope to compete at the national championships."