The Ferris State run­ners are back in action for another go around in 2012 as selected mem­bers of the team par­tic­i­pated in a scrimmage-type event hosted by Grand Valley State University.

The un-scored Bob Eubanks Open fea­tured ath­letes from numer­ous col­leges includ­ing Michigan State, South Florida and Notre Dame among others.

For the women, it was a con­sis­tent effort as three Bulldogs fin­ished in ninth place in their respec­tive events. Junior run­ner Zoey Hohmann took home ninth place in the 400 meter run, junior Alyssa Osika earned a ninth place fin­ish in the mile run and sopho­more Jessica Piling fin­ished in ninth in the weight throw.

“We’re still run­ning and just run­ning our nor­mal mileage to get ready for the sea­son,” said Bulldog sopho­more run­ner Haleigh Przybylek. “Our goal for the sea­son is just for every­one to improve and per­son­ally my dream sea­son for myself would be to set per­sonal records.”

On the men’s side junior Tyler Crossman led the way with an impres­sive fourth place fin­ish in the 3,000 meter run and 11^th in the mile run. Also fin­ish­ing impres­sively with a sev­enth place fin­ish in the mile run and ninth in the 3,000 meter run was junior Bulldog Ryan Chute. Senior Justin Price also fin­ished with a solid effort in the men’s 400 meter race, earn­ing him­self an 11^th place finish.

The Bulldogs will now turn to the upcom­ing 2012 sea­son and look to improve on last year’s 11^th place fin­ish in the GLIAC out­doors championships.

After the cross coun­try sea­son the Bulldogs run­ners took a much needed break to cool down a lit­tle bit, as junior Michael Schulte said, “After the cross coun­try sea­son we got a week and a half break to rest our legs and such, but after that the prepa­ra­tion was run­ning more miles and using core work­outs to our advantage.”

The Bulldogs are hop­ing to start off the sea­son on a good note and the next sched­uled com­pe­ti­tion is Friday, Jan. 20 at Grand Valley State University. After a cou­ple of other com­pe­ti­tions the Bulldogs will go into the GLIAC Indoor Championships in Findlay, Ohio.

Even though the track teams are smaller in num­bers than most teams, both the men’s and women’s are hop­ing to exceed expec­ta­tions in 2012.