Oct. 25, 2004

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Contact: David Barry

SETTING THE SCENE: The Vikings are in preparation for the Horizon League Meet to be run Saturday, Oct. 30th in Milwaukee. The team ran in the inaugural Falcon Invitational last weekend, with Julene Nickoloff pacing the Vikings with a 44th place finish.

PREVIEWING THE VIKINGS: Cleveland State has been forced to run without a full team of competitors because of an injury to junior Jennifer Ricica. Her absence has forced Cleveland State to run with just four runners, eliminating them from placing any of the team competitions thus far this season. Julene Nickoloff has paced the Vikings in each race so far, turning in her season-best time of 22:05 at the Mel Brodt Invitational at the beginning of September.

HAD TO GET A COACH: Allison Had, a former standout runner at Arizona State University and a native of northeast Ohio, will take over this season as the head women's cross country coach at Cleveland State University. After graduating from Arizona State in 1998, Had worked for one year as assistant cross country coach and women's athletic recruiter at Scottsdale Community College. In 1999, she moved to Charlotte, N.C. to take over as aquatics director for the central branch of the YMCA, a position she held for two years. Had returned to Northeast Ohio in June of 2000 to become marketing director for the Wild Oats Community Market in Woodmere, Ohio. She began teaching in the fall of 2001 at St. Gregory the Great School in South Euclid, a position she held for two years before moving to S.S. Peter and Paul in 2003. She has competed in five marathons all over the world, and was a standout runner at Kenston High School, Flagler College, and Arizona State. Had also started the Cleveland Triathlon Club, growing it to over 250 current members.

SEEING IMPROVEMENT: No runner has improved as much since the season started as Marlene Przykling. The Ingersoll, Ontario native has cut her time over 100 seconds since the first meet just over a month ago. Przykling ran a 27:40 at that first meet, and has steadily decreased her times since. She dropped over a minute in her time last Saturday at the Falcon Invitational, going from a 27:04 to a 26:01.

NEXT UP: Cleveland Statewill run the Horizon League Championships on Saturday. The Vikings finished ninth last year, with Shariah Pratt finished a team-best 63rd with a time of 22:26.