Sept. 12, 2006

CLEVELAND - After pacing the field at the 21st Miami Invitational and helping the RedHawks win the team title, Miami University junior Michael Veatch (Middletown, Ohio) has been tabbed as the Mid-American Conference Runner of the Week.

Winning his first career individual title at last weekend's Miami Invitational (Sept. 9), Veatch clocked in with a first-place time of 25:27.32. Locked in a neck-and-neck battle with sophomore teammate Brad Untrauer (McCordsville, Ind.), Veatch used a late surge in the final 200 meters of the 8K course to jump ahead of Untrauer and win the individual title by almost three seconds.

The first-place showing was Veatch's second consecutive top-10 finish at the Miami Invitational after placing seventh overall last season, and it was Veatch's fourth career top-10 finish. Veatch's first-place time also helped Miami win the meet by a 44-point margin and finish with 17 points, just two shy of the lowest possible point total.

The runner of the week award is the first of Veatch's career, and he is the second consecutive Miamian to win the award in 2006. Untrauer took home the season's first conference honor (Sept. 5) after winning the Flyer 5K Challenge. Veatch also helped complete a Miami sweep of the weekly conference awards for Sept. 12, as junior Sarah Henize (Bucyrus, Ohio) also was honored as the MAC Women's Runner of the Week.

With a back-to-back first-place finishes under its belt in 2006, Miami resumes competition in 11 days when it travels to the Penn State Spiked Shoe Invitational (Sept. 23).