The Bobcats have accepted that their team success hinges on the pack.
The pack, of course, refers to the clump of men who have finished within seconds of each other in Ohio's first two meets.
It's funny because (assistant coach Mitch Bentley) has said many times before that this team will live and die with our pack
sophomore Dan Quarfoot, who finished at the head of the group in both races, said.
We didn't come in and say 'we want to pack it up ' it just happens when you have a lot of young guys that all put in the miles.
What started as a three-man tandem in the opener at Virginia Tech grew to a six-person caravan at Saturday's home meet.
Quarfoot, sophomore Cory Irwin and redshirt junior Chris Davis finished 29th, 30th and 31st with times of 25:25.8, 25:26.1 and 25:26.4, respectively, in the first race.
At the Ohio Invitational, Quarfoot, Irwin, Tyler Ames, Joey Cherico, Noah Howkins and Matt Michno placed 12th through 17th. All six runners finished within 12 seconds of each other.
It looks like we're going to
as they say
live and die by the pack
coach Clay Calkins said. It's good because it's that way in practice too ... As long as they put themselves out there in practice and do a great job in that pack training
then the pack running in the meets should be okay.
The men know they need to improve as a group for the Bobcats to win.
We would all agree that we need to get the pack closer to our number one and number two and number three runners
Quarfoot said. That's where teams are going to beat us
and we can't let that happen.
The men will get their shot tomorrow when Ohio travels to Delaware, Ohio for the All-Ohio Championships. The Bobcats will see Mid-American Conference teams Miami and Akron, as well as many other non-conference squads such as Ohio State and Cincinnati.
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