By Brian Farrell, QBSN Staff Writer

September 15, 2012

On Saturday afternoon Quinnipiac men’s and women’s cross country hosted the Quinnipiac Invitational. The men were edged by Central Connecticut State University, 31-24. The meet featured just the two interstate teams.

Senior Mike Levene was the Bobcats top finisher in third place with a time of 27:48.5.

The most exciting moment of the day came in the final 100 meters when Levene and unattached runner Tyler Raymond found themselves in a full on sprint for second place.

At the start of the race Levene was in the middle of the front pack. The beginning of the course runs in a loop that starts going around the baseball field from the soccer fields and loops through the quad behind Echlin Center. Just after this first mile Levene was positioned in eighth place.

The next part of the courses moves back through the soccer fields where most the crowd was. As Levene moved out of the soccer fields for a second time, he moved up three spots to fifth.

“I was just trying to stay relaxed today,” Levene said. “I tried to keep my turnover rate even and tried to think more like I was running a tempo than a race.”

Levene continued to move up in the final mile until he found himself in a dead sprint with Raymond. Levene came down the final stretch, but was left in the hunter position trying to track down Raymond. As Levene stepped out to the right to move around Raymond, Raymond was able to position Levene off the angle and hold on for second place. Just four-tenths of a second separated the two runners.

The Quinnipiac Invitational was Levene’s first race of the season after a slow start in the preseason kept him out of the team’s first two races.

“Mike really surprised me today,” head coach Carolyn Martin said. “When he came back for preseason he wasn’t in the shape we wanted him to be in. But he worked really hard today, and we are excited to see what he does for the rest of the season.”

The invitational marked the first race of the season for sophomore Spencer Mannion, who finished five seconds behind Levine.

Before the race, Martin classified today as a low key meet. As a result, Martin opted to leave out some of her top runners.

“We rested a lot of our guys today because we want to make sure they are ready for later on this season,” Martin said. “We also want to be careful with the freshmen who are now running five mile races instead off 5K races.”

The Bobcats will have a week off before they travel to Lehigh on Sep. 28.