It was a meet of firsts for the Ohio men's cross country team. It was the first time they competed at the Central Collegiate Invitational and the first time the team's top runners competed together.
The result was a first-place team finish. The Bobcat men took the team title with 38 points.
The top four (runners) had a great race
coach Clay Calkins said. They ran together as a pack for most of the race. They ran a great team race and looked in shape and ready to race.
Jason Linton paced the Bobcats in the 8K race, finishing third with a time of 25:11.
The meet was a good indication of how Ohio matches up with the rest of the Mid-American Conference schools early in the season, Linton said.
I was really happy especially for the team he said. We are starting to match up with the other MAC schools.
Calkins said he was pleased with Linton's performance.
He ran a great race
Calkins said. There were a lot of high-caliber athletes here
so third was a very respectable finish for him.
Austin Schiele and Brian King finished fourth and fifth, respectively, to give Ohio three runners in the top 5.
Craig Leon (9th) and Brian List (17th) also scored points for the Bobcats.
Ohio finished 24 points ahead of Oakland in the team standings. MAC schools Akron, Buffalo and Toledo finished third, fifth and sixth, respectively.
On the women's side, Carime Reinhart started where she left off last year, being the first Ohio runner to cross the finish line. She finished second in the 5K race, six seconds behind Toledo's Ebba Stenback. Reinhart's time of 17:57 was faster than her time on the same course at last year's MAC Championships.
She said there was a lot of good conference competition at the meet.
The meet went pretty well
she said. I had the Toledo runner to go with and we pushed each other throughout the race.
Rachel Beakas (28th), Ali Green (29th), Julia Weisenborn (34th) and Lauren Birnie (36th) also contributed to the Ohio women's fifth-place finish out of nine teams.
Calkins said he was happy with the women's team results.
They did a great job
he said. It was nice to see two freshmen in the top five.
Host Toledo won the meet with 30 points. MAC schools Buffalo, Western Michigan and Northern Illinois finished second, fourth and sixth, respectively in the women's team standings.
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Julie Goldberg
