Rochester, N.Y. –  Mercyhurst sophomore Christie Turak continued her dominant 2008 cross country campaign by taking first place at the Yellowjacket Cross Country Invitational, hosted by the University of Rochester Saturday. The women's cross country team placed sixth out of 16 teams Saturday. Tomas Bolger led the men's team to a seventh place finish out of 15 teams in the meet.

 

Geneseo won the women's race with 37 points, followed by Cornell with 50 and the University of Western Ontario with 69 points. Host University of Rochester and Houghton College rounded out the top five.

 

The Mercyhurst women's team scored 175 points, 30 points ahead of Gannon, who finished seventh.

 

Turak ran 18:23 over the 5K course, edging Kaitlin Fadden of Houghton College by seven seconds for first place out of 183 competitors in the meet. She has now won three races this season, and Saturday's time was her second best. Cherie Jackson placed 28^th overall with a time of 19:34. Jennifer Mieczkowski ran a 20:27 for 57^th place, followed closely by teammate Amanda Ehrbar, who finished in 60^th with a time of 10:35. Emily Monahan finished out the Lakers' team scoring, running 21:47 for 97^th place. Sara Rex finished in 114th place with a time of 22:25.

 

Christine Mobilia and Jessica Pachlhofer finished two seconds apart at 22:36 and 22:38, respectively. Jill Leaness completed the course in 23:02 with teammate Clara Strasenburgh next at 23:05. Stephanie Wilkins also competed for Mercyhurst, touring the course in 24:14.

 

Cornell won the men's race with 24 points and Geneseo took second with 63 points. The University of Western Ontario finished third with 93 points, while Houghton and Fredonia rounded out the top five.

 

The Lakers' men's team posted a score of 239 points for seventh place.

 

Tomas Bolger of Mercyhurst placed 40^th out of 196 runners Saturday with a time of 26:37 over the 8K course. Kevin Gregg ran 27:46 for 67^th place. Derek Hoerner completed the course in 28:03, good for 76^th place. Steven Lovewell finished in 87^th place with a 28:19. Chris Strohm finished up Mercyhurst's team scoring in 95^th place with a mark of 28:33. Kurtis Billig and Kevin Flannagan finished closely together, as Billig ran a 28:47 and Flannagan posted a 28:51.

 

Andrew Rusnak ran a time of 29:26. Michael Humphrey traversed the course in 30:31, while Mitch Mahfoud completed the race in 31:13.

 

Mercyhurst competes next at the PSAC Championship Meet Saturday, Nov. 1, hosted by Lock Haven University.