The men’s cross country won the outright competition and women’s cross country team finished fifth at Bowling Green’s Falcon Invitational Saturday.

Freshman Scott Hilditch finished in third place to lead the Flashes to the win, with teammates sophomore Aiman Scullion, senior Ray Armstrong and junior Joe Parker finishing right behind him in fifth, sixth and seventh place, respectively.

Senior Ryan Spellman finished just out of the top 10 in 12th place for the Flashes. Junior Dan Klatt was the only other team member to finish in the top 25, placing 23rd in a total field of 146 runners.

Coach Mark Croghan said underclassmen Hilditch and Scullion encouraged each other throughout the race, which helped lead to a strong team finish.

“Scott and Aiman really did a good job of picking each other up right up until the end,” Croghan said. “They gave a very strong showing, as did the rest of the men’s team.”

The men’s team won out over the field of 13 teams, including Mid-American Conference rivals Bowling Green, Buffalo and Toledo.

The women’s team placed fifth, behind MAC foes Bowling Green, Miami and Toledo. The team finished ahead of MAC teams from Buffalo and Eastern Michigan, in a field of 18 teams.

Freshman Kassandra Meholick led the Flashes individually with a 10th place finish, while sophomore Kelly Gephart and freshman Allison Krupko also finished in the top 25 out of a total of 191 runners.

“I think the team ran great,” Krupko said. “I think we’re a lot closer to where we want to be as a team this week compared to last week at the All-Ohio Championship.”

Coach Mark Croghan said he felt the women ran extremely well but needed to learn from running against the other top MAC women’s programs.

“We ran a much better race this week from top to bottom on the women’s side,” Croghan said. “We finished behind three MAC teams, and they’re the teams we need to emulate going into the MAC Championships.”

The cross country program originally scheduled the men’s and women’s teams to compete in the Pre-National meet in Terre Haute, Ind., but Croghan said he wanted the team to run this race in preparation for their next scheduled event, the MAC Championships.

Meholick said the team’s success in this event will pay dividends on Oct. 27 when they travel to Mount Pleasant, Mich. to compete for the MAC title.

“This event definitely helped us because it’s nice to have a successful race fresh in your mind when you’re going into the championships,” Meholick said.

At the start of the season, Croghan said the goals of the team included a top five finish in the MAC for the women and a top two finish for the men.

Contact cross country reporter

Thomas Gallick at [email protected].