The men’s and women’s cross country teams finished second at the Mel Brodt Invitational this weekend at Bowling Green.

Kent State cross country coach Mark Croghan said the impressive performance can be accredited to an aggressive training program and the importance he’s placed on teamwork.

“I was interested to see how we’d execute the race plan,” he said. “If that was done properly, I knew the finish would take care of itself.”

Croghan has put great emphasis on the depth of the team. He isn’t concerned with seeing one or two standout runners, but would rather see the team as a whole close together and as far up front as possible.

“I had a good idea of what we could do,” Croghan said. “I was pleased to see everyone run up to their capability.”

Junior Tony Jordanek took second place overall, leading the men’s team. He ran the 8,000-meter race with a time of 26 minutes, 6.76 seconds.

“Tony had a breakthrough performance, being mostly a middle-distance runner,” Croghan said.

Jordanek, who has seen most of his success in shorter distances like the 800-meter or the 1,600-meter runs during track season, said he didn’t expect to finish as the top Kent State runner.

“It was a big surprise – I’m a track guy,” Jordanek said.

Jordanek said he ran the first three miles of the race conservatively, sticking with the rest of his team. Feeling pretty strong with two miles left in the race, Jordanek started breaking away.

“I probably could have finished better, but it was the confidence factor,” Jordanek said. “I wasn’t used to being our top guy. This race was a big boost for me. Now I know I can be our No. 1 guy, and that will help out for the rest of the year.”

Sophomore John Minen was the second Kent State runner to cross the finish line, taking fourth place with a time of 26:16.85.

Senior Joe Parker, who took fifth place, registered a time of 26:17.64.

On the women’s side, sophomore Kassandra Meholick led Kent State, finishing the 5,000-meter race in fifth with a time of 18:34.29.

Freshman Audrey Maheu took sixth with a time of 18:41.02. Junior Kelly Gephart finished ninth with a time of 18:48 flat.

Meholick said she is already noticing an improvement in the team since last year.

“Our pack is a lot tighter this year,” Meholick said. “We started to be more aggressive in our training earlier in the season.”

Meholick hopes the training will help the teams improve on its disappointing Mid-American Conference finish last year. The men’s team finished sixth at the 2007 MAC Championship, and the women’s team took ninth.

“Personally and team-wise, the meet we’re really gunning for is the MAC,” Meholick said.

Although Croghan said he would have rather seen Kent State take home first-place honors this week, he added finishing second to the University of Cincinnati is nothing to be ashamed of. He hopes the Flashes can step it up at the All-Ohio Championship Oct. 10, where they will compete against the Bearcats once again.

“They are a great team,” Croghan said. “We look forward to getting another shot at Cincinnati – they run a good program.”

Contact sports reporter Brittany Tatgenhorst at [email protected].