Chippewa Men 1st, Women 2nd at Bowling Green

Friday, October 17

Bowling Green, Ohio

4:30 pm

Central Michigan University

Falcon Invitational

Chippewa Men 1st, Women 2nd at Bowling Green Image

Ethan Leitner, a senior, led the CMU men with a third-place finish on Friday at Bowling Green.

Photo by: Lauren Verellen '26 - @laurenverellen_photography

10/17/2025 8:32:00 PM | Men's Cross Country

Results Photo Gallery

CMU men notch first invitational victory since 2017

By: Andy Sneddon

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – A banner day, and one a long time coming.

Ethan Leitner placed third and five Chippewas finished in the top 14 on Friday as the Central Michigan men's cross country team won the Bowling Green State Falcon Invitational.

It was the first meet victory for the CMU men since 2017.

"The guys just took the bull by the horns and went out really aggressively and hung on," CMU coach Jenny Swieton said. "Sometimes you can go out aggressive like that and kind of fade, and they just made it hurt and were willing to hurt and hung on for the win. That was so awesome.

"As much as the guys like to (set a personal record), a win means so much more. We have so many senior guys; this means so much. That's such a big deal for them."

Led by freshman Kyah Hoffman, the Chippewa women finished second with 52 points behind the host Falcons (16).

"I know what we're capable of, but it's so hard to guess what place we're going to be because you can only control yourselves," Swieton said of both her squads. "I knew we were ready to hurt today, and we had to be willing to hurt because we're pretty fatigued from training.

"We've been working really hard, and I knew we were ready to face that pain, but I didn't know what that would mean in the results. I couldn't be happier with first and second."

In the men's race, CMU's Jason Fredricks finished sixth, Miciah Smith was 11^th, Greg Janesak was 13^th and Joey Taverna was 14^th.

Removing the unattached runners, Leitner was third, Fredricks was fifth, Smith was ninth, Janesak was 10^th, and Taverna was 11^th.

The CMU men finished with 38 points, 12 better than runner-up Robert Morris. The Chippewas finished ahead of three full MAC squads, Akron, Kent State and Bowling Green.

The win was particularly satisfying for Leitner and his fellow seniors, Fredricks and Taverna among them.

"We lost a lot of guys since COVID and ever since my class has kind of like rebuilding from there and each year we've been getting slowly better," Leitner said. "Although we haven't run 100 percent like we're capable of, I think we're headed in the right direction.

"I don't know that there was anything specific that made us do good today, but I think that one thing, our top five, we're all really similar. Any day, any of us can be No. 1. We don't have really an 'out' runner. Our strength is the pack, and I feel like we executed that pretty well today.

"We all went out together and pushed each other together and I think that really helped. If you have a teammate next to you, that makes you run stronger. Looking over and seeing my boys I'm running with gives me motivation and confidence. Today we all found that sweet spot."

Clearly, the Chippewas' front-running pack delivered, but the entire team drew inspiration from junior Colin Wesseldyk, who finished well back in the 88-runner field.

The mere fact that he toed the line and finished his first collegiate 8K was a boost, Swieton said.

"The most inspirational performance of the day was Colin," she said. "He had surgery a couple years ago (as a freshman) and he literally took over a year and a half off from running."

Wesseldyk ran in the Chippewas' season opening Jeff Drenth Memorial, but then suffered a physical setback, Swieton said.

"He's barely been training, and he just wanted to get a shot to race with his team and he gave everything he had," she said. "I know it hurt really, really bad. To show how much heart he has and how much it means to him to compete with the team, I think that inspires everybody."

The Chippewas' performance and their finish gives them confidence heading into the Mid-American Conference Championship in two weeks in Buffalo.

"MAC is our big day," Leitner said. "Everything is built toward MACs so seeing the other teams and competing with them and finishing ahead of them, I feel like that's a really big confidence booster.

"I think we're going to shock a lot of people."

Hoffman was seventh overall and fifth among attached runners. Also for CMU, Grace VanderKooi was 10^th, Jessie Gibbins placed 11^th, Kayla Williams was 19^th, and Kate Jenkins finished 21^st.

Removing unattached runners, VanderKooi was seventh, Gibbins was eighth, Williams placed 15^th, and Jenkins was 17^th.

"Great collective performance on the women's side," Swieton said. "I think that's the best we've run together. We do really well running as a pack and I think today we just worked really well together and pushed each other and that made all the difference in the world.

"They fought from start to finish and never gave in. Did it for each other. They raced very well today."

Gibbins, Swieton said, gave her teammates a boost as the third Chippewa to cross the finish line. She was the sixth CMU runner in CMU's last meet, the Lehigh Paul Short Classic two weeks ago.

"She decided to run the race her way and when she runs the race her way, it makes a big difference," Swieton said. "Coming through the field she picks everybody up; she inspires them and gets them to keep going.

"We call her the sweeper – she'll start out a little bit slower, but she touches everybody out there and I think that means a lot to the team playing that role for us."