The Ohio men's cross country team will travel to Terre Haute, Ind., to compete in the NCAA Pre-Nationals. With about 87 Division I teams, the meet will be the largest the team has participated in this season.
The Pre-Nationals is an event all of its own, with the 30 top teams in the nation competing in three separate divisions: the blue, white and open. Ohio will send 10 runners who will compete in the open race.
This is an incredible meet; it's almost a who's who race with the best Division I schools
assistant coach Mitch Bentley said. With all the top 30 teams I don't know if you can get another athletic event like it.
The only other Mid-American Conference team in the open race will be Toledo. However, there are four additional MAC schools competing in the other divisions, which will allow Ohio to scout the competition for the MAC Championships one more time before the meet.
This is a whole different level of competition than what we have been racing against all season Bentley said, but we aren't intimidated.
Senior Jason Linton has paced the Bobcats, who are coming off a fourth-place finish at the All-Ohio Championships. Linton was awarded the MAC Runner of the Week for his fourth-place finish at the All-Ohio Championships, beating all other MAC runners with a time of 25:58.
Austin Schiele, who didn't finish last week's race because of an asthma attack, will be aiming to bounce back with a quality time. Other runners include Drew Frum, Craig Leon, Brian List, Toni Turowski, Andy Bittner, Bob Wayner, Brian King and Pat Harvey.
Leon, who finished 30th at the All-Ohio with a time of 27:00, said he is ready for the unknown.
I don't know what to expect because we didn't run there last year
Leon said, but we're ready. This is the last meet before the MAC Championships and are goal there is to beat Kent State.
Coach Clay Calkins said he and the team are ready for the meet.
It's going to be pretty exciting
Calkins said, We're looking good
coming off a great finish at the All-Ohio Championships
and we ought to have a strong showing.
The men's open race will start about 3:05 p.m. tomorrow at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center.
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Nick Miller
