Oct. 14, 2007

Rochester, N.Y. - Mercyhurst senior Kenneth Foster finished as runner-up for the second consecutive week as the Laker men's cross country team placed fourth out of 14 teams at the Harry F. Anderson Invitational, hosted by Roberts Wesleyan University, Saturday.

Ithaca College won the race with 30 points, followed by Penn State Behrend with 68 and Houghton with 72. Mercyhurst had 124 points for fourth place, while rival Gannon was sixth with 168.

Foster finished with a time of 26:18.6, less than 12 seconds behind champion Daniel Ballard, of Houghton. The next three runners were all from Ithaca College and that team placed five runners in the top 10 of the 152-person field to win the team championship.

Mercyhurst's next best runner came in over 90 seconds after Foster as freshman Christopher Strohm placed 30th in 27:50.1 Sophomore Tomas Bolger was 37th in 28:06.3 and junior Kurtis Billig was 42nd in 28:17.7.

Juniors Derek Hoerner and Mike Humphrey and freshman Ronny Whiting finished in succession, ending 45th, 46th and 47th. Hoerner was at 28:25.2, while Humphrey ended at 28:31.7 and Whiting completed the course in 28:32.2. Whiting had been the Lakers' second finisher in all five of the team's races prior to Saturday.

Freshman Matt Allison placed 55th with a time of 28:46.7 and another freshman, Adam Grincius, was 67th in 29:16.5. Sophomore Andrew Rusnak was 76th in 29:49.2 and freshman Shawn Rocklein was 82nd in 30:16.8. Sophomore Kevin Flanagan had a time of 30:28.6 for 86th place and freshman Mitch Mahfoud was 102nd in 31:37.9.

Mercyhurst will begin the postseason this weekend as the Lakers co-host the GLIAC Championships with Gannon University Saturday. The 8,000-meter men's race will start at 11:45 a.m. at Pleasant Ridge Park in Fairview, Pa.