Sept. 29, 2007

Contact: Greg Murphy

RICHMOND, Ind. - Cleveland State freshman Allison Craine ran to a fourth place finish as the Vikings placed sixth of 12 teams at the Earlham Invitational on Saturday morning.

Craine was running in sixth place with about 300-meters left, but rallied down the stretch and passed two runners as she posted a time of 19:52 to place fourth, just one second behind the third place runner.

"Allison looked great today, especially down the stretch," head coach Joe Jaketic said. "She had a great kick down the stretch and was able to pass two runners. She almost tracked down the third place finisher as well."

It was the fifth time in as many races this season that Craine was CSU's top finisher. In addition, she was the top freshman finisher at today's race.

Sophomore Julie Piotrowski was the second finisher for the Vikings as she placed 22nd with a time of 20:58.

By virtue of their top-25 finishes, Craine and Piotrowski were honored at the awards ceremony following the race.

Sophomore Alison Ohliger clocked in at 21:31 to claim 38th place and was followed by sophomore Colleen Conway (22:26; 55th) and Jordan Hoile (22:40; 63rd) to round out the Viking scoring.

Juniors Audrey Piotrowski (22:58), Melisa Mazanac (23:40) and Amy Salzman (24:41) also competed for CSU.

"Overall, I was happy with the efforts today," Jaketic said. "This is a tough, demanding course with a lot of rolling hills. We have been able to shorten the times between our runners, but we still need to run more in a pack."

Otterbein won the team title and was followed by Taylor, John Carroll, Rose Hulman, Manchester and Cleveland State.

CSU will return to action on Friday (Oct. 5) at the All-Ohio Championships in Delaware, Ohio. The race is scheduled to begin at 2:00 pm at the Methodist Theological School.