Sept. 3, 2006

Contact: Josh Rattray

The Cleveland State women's cross country team battled adverse weather conditions and season-opening jitters to finish 11^th at the Bill Sudeck Invitational on Saturday (Sept. 2) in Cleveland Heights. Freshman Caitlan Ebner notched a team-best time of 20:42, good for 38^th place, in her first collegiate race.

"We had some very good individual performances," head coach Joe Jaketic said. "The conditions weren't very ideal for running and I think we were a little nervous out there for the first time this season."

Sophomore Julie Piotrowski finished second among CSU runners, clocking in at 21:04. Senior Sherri Douglas was next for the Vikings with a 22:16. Junior Madeline Singer and sophomore Audrey Piotrowski posted times of 22:34 and 22:48, respectively. Junior Christina Swierz rounded out the Vikings' lineup with a time of 23:02. CSU was without senior Shannon Graves, who was out with an injury.

"Not having Shannon hurt us a little bit," Jaketic said. "Once we have everyone healthy, we should be very competitive in every meet.

"I was happy with the way everyone battled back, but we need to get better as a team. Now that we have that first meet out of the way, we know where we need to improve."

Edinboro topped the team standings and had four runners finish in the meet's top 20 finishers, including top-finisher Rachael Lenzel. Host school Case Western finished second.

The Vikings are back in action on Saturday (Sept. 9) at the Tom Evans Invitational in Akron. The race is scheduled to start at 12:15 p.m.