Photo Courtesy of Ferris State University AthleticcsTaylor Crossman (#97) and Alex Best (#92) com­pete at the Ray Helsing Bulldog Invitational last Friday at FSU’s Katke Golf Course. 16 of the top 19 places were won by the men and women of the Ferris State cross coun­try team.

Both the men’s and women’s cross coun­try teams had strong per­for­mances at the lone home meet this season.

The women’s team took eight of the nine top indi­vid­ual places and the men’s team matched that pace by scor­ing eight of the top 10 run­ners in its meet.

“I feel pretty good about our effort today from both teams,” said Coach Steve Picucci, “It’s really early in the year, so I’m not really wor­ried about times; I’m more focused on effort at this point.”

Leading the women’s team was junior Tina Muir, who con­vinc­ingly won the women’s 5K event with a time of 18 min­utes, 4.74 seconds.

“Tina’s our num­ber one run­ner for our women, she really helps set the pace for the team,” said Picucci.

The women’s team had solid per­for­mances from its fresh­man run­ners. Anna Ruud placed sec­ond (18:49.39), Shelby Janutol came in third (19:35.90), Alyssa Osika cap­tured fourth (19:37.76), Jordan McGuire fin­ished sev­enth (20:24.66), and Felicia Peacock placed eighth (20:27.79).

“Our younger girls are really start­ing to run well right now,” said Picucci, “It really helps hav­ing them come in as fresh­man and mak­ing a dif­fer­ence for our team right now.”

The Bulldogs also had two juniors plac­ing in the top nine, with Paige Onweller plac­ing sixth (20:09.03) and Sarah Creed com­ing in ninth (20:30.54).

The men’s team claimed 10 of the top 13 fin­ishes in its 8K meet. The Bulldogs were lead by senior Curtis Begley, who fin­ished in sec­ond place (26:24.59). Sophomore Tyler Crossman fol­lowed with a third place fin­ish (27:10.31).

Junior Alex Best placed fifth (27:27.33), junior Derek Childs came in sixth (27:51.65), sopho­more Steve Neshkoff fol­lowed in sev­enth (27:51.89), fresh­man Ryan Chute took eighth (28:03.60), senior Brian Reynolds was ninth (28:08.88) and fresh­man Josh Kyser claimed tenth place (28:09.70).

“Both the younger guys and the older guys did well for us today. I was pretty happy with all the guys and the per­for­mance they had,” said Picucci.

This year, The Bulldog Invitational was renamed to honor for­mer coach Ray Helsing, who led cross coun­try and track and field at Ferris from 1968–82. Helsing was also inducted into the Bulldog Athletics Hall of Fame in 2001.Helsing also coached more All-Americans than any coach in Ferris State his­tory. This year also was the 34^th run­ning of the Bulldog Invitational, which first started in 1971 and was later restarted in 1976.

Both the men and women cross coun­try teams are next sched­uled to par­tic­i­pate in the Wisconsin-Parkside Lucian Rosa Open on Oct. 10, in Kenosha, Wis.