Oct. 25, 2008

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Complete Results

Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. - The Grand Valley State women's cross country team placed all seven runners in the top-10 of the GLIAC Championships on Saturday (Oct. 25) in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. GVSU had three runners finish in the top-5 for a final score of 25 points. The Lakers finished comfortably ahead of Wayne State (66) and (121) for the team title.

It is the eighth consecutive GLIAC championship and GVSU moves ahead of Hillsdale for the most team titles in league history. The Lakers totaled 10 of the 14 runners on the All-GLIAC teams, as seven runners are honored on both the first and second units. 

GVSU had an average time of 22:03, nearly 40 seconds faster than Wayne State. Northwood (126), Findlay (133), and Saginaw Valley State (135) finished fourth, fifth, and sixth, respectively.

Megan Maceratini paced the Lakers with a third-place finish with a time of 21:42. She was followed in fourth place by Amy Kolin, who had a time of 21:59. Katherine McCarthy was fifth at 22:09.

Sarah Kulczycki finished sixth at 22:12 and Rebecca Winchester was seventh at 22:13. Closing out the scoring for the Lakers was Lynsey Ardingo with a ninth-place finish at 22:19 and Kelly Gibbons was 10th at 22:24. Julia Nowak was named the GLIAC Freshman of the Year, which is the fifth straight year GVSU has been awarded that honor. Of the nine years the Freshman of the Year has been handed out, the Lakers have had seven award winners.

GVSU head coach Jerry Baltes spoke highly of his championship team. "We are very proud of our women's team for winning their eighth title in a row," remarked Baltes. "Having 10 women in the top-14 really shows the depth of our squad. One of our greatest strengths as a team is that we have a great training group that pushes one another in workouts and on race day. We are excited about what the next four weeks brings for this team in striving to defend our regional title."