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 Junior Abdullah Saleh led the way for the Warriors finishing fourth over all out of 152 runners with a time of 26:03.48 |
Sept. 1, 2007
Lawrence, Kan. - The Wayne State men's and women's cross country teams opened up the 2007 season with a solid effort at the Bob Simmons Invitational hosted by the University of Kansas here at Rim Rock Farms. The men's team notched an impressive seventh place finish out of 13 teams in the 8k run with 138 points while the women's team garnered a fifth place finish in the 6k run with 128 points out of 13 teams.
Junior Abdullah Saleh (Dearborn, Mich.-Fordson) led the way for the Warriors finishing fourth over all out of 152 runners with a time of 26:03.48. In addition to Saleh, WSU had a total of five runners finish in the top 50 with sophomore Vince Bechard (Dearborn, Mich.-Devine Child) finishing 27th (27:38.77), followed by senior Kevin Christensen (Battle Creek, Mich.-Pennfield) 32nd (27:45:94), freshman Chris Tassen (Troy, Mich.-Athens) 35th (27:54.00) and sophomore Dan Kapadia 40th (28:04.82).
On the women's side, freshman Lauren Kessler (Ionia, Mich.-Ionia) made the most of her collegiate debut leading the team with a 16th place finish and time of 24:08.82. Not far behind, her older sister, senior Kara Kessler, placed 22nd at 24:26.39. Out of the total field of 111 runners, the Warriors had eight of nine runners finish in the top 50. In addition to the Kessler sisters, graduate student Tracy Egnatuk (Albion, Mich.-Albion (Michigan) finished 24th (24:30.74), followed by freshman Brittany Colley (Ionia, Mich.-Ionia) 32nd (25:04.91), freshman Allison Wykle (Trenton, Mich.-Trenton) 38th (25:18.78), freshman Kristi Werner (East Jordan, Mich.-East Jordan) 41st (25:26.05), Annie Magin 44th (25:43.92) and junior Nicole Widak 46th (25:47.54).
Both teams will resume action at the Tommy Titan Invitational hosted University of Detroit Open Saturday Sept. 8 at the Cass-Benton Park in Northville, Mich. The event is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.
