Oct. 25, 2003

BIG RAPIDS, Mich. - After a season off due to injury, WSU senior Nick Allen wasn't about to let anyone take what was rightfully his. The Plymouth, Mich., native successfully defended his Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference individual championship as he was named Runner of the Year for the second time in his career with a 25:01.2 time at the 2003 GLIAC Championship, hosted by Ferris State on Saturday, Oct. 25. The Warriors finished in second place with 60 points to Grand Valley State's 35. Hillsdale was right behind the Warriors with 61 points.

The senior-dominated Warriors had three other top-11 finishers as Mike Buslepp (Warren, Mich./Cousino) placed eighth (25:25.8), Joe Verellen (Livonia, Mich./Livonia Stevenson) was 10th (25:26.6) and Brian Goodwin (Dearborn Heights, Mich./Annapolis) ran an 11th-place time of 25:29.7.

Sophomore Justin Kessler (Ionia, Mich./Ionia) ran a time of 26:33.0 to finsih in 30th place.

Besides being Runner of the Year, Allen was selected to the GLIAC First Team as Buslepp, Verellen and Goodwin all earned Second Team All-GLIAC honors.

Championship Site

Men's Award Recipients
Men's Coach of the Year - Jerry Baltes, Grand Valley State
Men's Freshman of the Year - Chris Pabst, Grand Valley State
Men's Runner of the Year - Nick Allen, Wayne State

Men's First-Team All-Conference
Nick Allen, Wayne State
Mark Terpstra, Grand Valley State
Nate Iler, Ashland
Blake Terhune, Grand Valley State
Chris Pabst, Grand Valley State
Jeff Vyaln, Grand Valley State
Kyle Fujimoto, Hillsdale

Men's Second-Team All-Conference
Mike Buslepp, Wayne State
Michael Bean, Northwood
Joe Verellen, Wayne State
Brian Goodwin, Wayne State
Michael Nikkila, Hillsdale
Matt Wish, Hillsdale
Scott Kallgren, Hillsdale

Place	Name	Time
1st	Nick Allen	25:01.2
8th	Mike Buslepp	25:25.8
10th	Joe Verellen	25:26.6
11th	Brian Goodwin	25:29.7
30th	Justin Kessler	26:33.0
32nd	Charles Stamboulian	26:35.1
38th	Matt Fecht	26:35.3
43rd	Sean O'Halloran	26:43.0
52nd	Chris Burns	27:13.1
54th	Lance Jones	27:17.5
84th	Mark Moher	28:01.4

GLIAC Team Standings

Place	Name	Points
1st	Grand Valley State	35
2nd	Wayne State	60
3rd	Hillsdale	61
4th	Ashland	88
5th	Saginaw Valley	197
6th	Lake Superior	205
7th	Northwood	213
8th	Michigan Tech	239
9th	Mercyhurst	251
T-10th	Ferris State	273
T-10th	Findlay	273
12th	Gannon	334