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Oct. 30, 2004

Contact: Brian McCann

KENOSHA, Wis. -- Despite running in cold and blistery conditions over a difficult 5,000-meter course at UW-Parkside, the Cleveland State women's cross country team finished the regular season with a solid showing at the 2004 Horizon League Championships.

The Vikings, who entered just three runners because of roster limitations that have been a problem all season, battled through a challenging course with good results.

"I thought that our runners really kept it together well today," head coach Allison Had said. "This was not only the most-difficult course that we have run on this year, but the weather conditions made it extremely tough.

"I can't wait for next year to come because we could have done well against this field if we had a complete team. We have really done a nice job of looking past the adversity this year to focus on giving our best effort and improving our performance. Considering the weather conditions today, I think we accomplished that."

Battling a race time temperature of 51 degrees and winds gusting to 46 mph, senior Julene Nickoloff paced the Vikings for the sixth straight meet, finishing in 66th place with a time of 24:05. Junior Shilah Pratt, who was battling a cold and sore throat, finished in 25:29 and Vanessa Anna closed out CSU runners in 25:52.

Butler ran away with the team title, placing its top five runners in the top eight in the field to finish with 23 points. Loyola finished second with 60 points and was followed by UW-Milwaukee in third with 84 points. Rounding out the team standings were Youngstown State (102 points), Detroit (132), Illionois-Chicago (178), Wright State (182) and UW-Green Bay (200).

Butler's Victoria Mitchell ran the course in 18:02 to claim the individual championship, finishing 11 seconds ahead of Loyola's Maureeca Lambert (18:13).

Cleveland State closes the 2004 season next weekend when it runs at the NCAA Regional Cross Country Championship, which will be held on Saturday, Nov. 13 at Eastern Michigan University.