The Ohio men's cross country team continued to improve its season by finishing third in the Open division race at the NCAA Pre-Nationals Saturday.
Once again, Jason Linton paced the team by finishing in the top 10 with a time of 25:12, which earned him eighth place. Following Linton was Austin Schiele, who finished 51st at 26:01.
Overall
the team ran well Linton said. But now we're focused on the Mid-American Conference Championships and if everyone has a great race we aim to take third.
Assistant coach Mitch Bentley said he was pleased by Linton's performance and consistency.
Jason had an outstanding showing and backed up what he has been doing all season
Bentley said. It's great to see him establish some consistency up front.
The Bobcats' other top runner, last year's team MVP Drew Frum, wasn't able to finish due to a stomach cramp and had to exit the race after the 5,000-meter marker.
The team has struggled all season to put together a tight finish, but Toni Turowski, who finished 78th with a time of 26:21, said he thinks the team is still capable of doing so.
We had some strong individual performances
but we're still having trouble getting everyone to finish together on the same day
Turowski said. Our training is working for us
and if we can form a tight pack we might surprise some teams at the MAC Championships.
Also finishing for the Bobcats were Bob Wayner (70th), Brian King (87th) and Craig Leon (90th). Ohio collected 97 points and finished behind Southern Illinois and South Dakota State.
We had a fairly solid race
Bentley said, We wanted to have a relaxed attitude for this meet
and (we wanted) to see some of the big teams like Stanford and Colorado so we could compare times.
The Bobcats will have a week off before they travel to Toledo for the MAC Championships Oct. 30.
We're ready to run
and if everyone steps up we might even give Miami and Central Michigan some competition. Linton said. With the way we are running
there should be no reason for us to finish any farther back than fifth.
