The Ohio men's cross country team started the second half of its season Friday with a ninth-place finish among 26 teams at the Notre Dame Invitational gold division meet.
With an experienced squad of runners, the Bobcats didn't finish as tightly as they would have liked, but they were still pleased with the finishes, coach Clay Calkins said.
We're happy with the results
Calkins said, but it would have been nice to finish in the top three. The amount and level of competition was pretty intense.
Craig Leon, who finished with a time of 26:03, said he felt the team should have finished higher but was still proud of everyone.
As a team we ran all right Leon said, We definitely have room to improve. It was a good meet and a great experience for us competing against 26 teams.
Toni Turowski, who clocked in at 26:26, said he had similar feelings.
Personally
I didn't have the race I wanted
but with the depth our team has this year
it's OK
Turowski said. Brian King was able to step it up big time and have a great race when some of us didn't.
King finished with a personal-best time of 25:59, good for 63rd place. Jason Linton, who won last week's Ohio Invitational, paced the Bobcats, taking 11th overall with a time of 25:06.
We were glad to finish in front of the two MAC opponents -Akron and Central Michigan
Calkins said. It was also good to scout out some of the competition we will be racing against at the All-Ohio and MAC championships.
Turowski said he can't wait to see what the team can put together at the end of the year.
If we put a whole race together with everyone on the same page
he said, we should do some damage at the upcoming meets
for sure.
