Coach Clay Calkins said the men and women of Ohio's cross country teams proved something to him in their second meet of the season: They're special.
Both squads won in Friday's Virginia Tech Alumni Invitational, and seniors Annie Beecham and Ridge Robinson led the way.
The team responded well to the competition level
Calkins said. Virginia Tech has fielded a strong team - both men and women - in the past two years so it was good to go up against them and end up on the winning side of things.
The Hokies provided the strongest test for Ohio. The women edged past them by 11 points, and the men scored a three-point victory.
Before the meet, Calkins emphasized the importance of several veteran runners' return to the lineup. The group highlighted Ohio's top finishes.
Beecham won the women's race, crossing the finish line in a time of 16 minutes, 14.11 seconds. Fellow senior Kari Summers was second for the Bobcats, as she finished fourth overall with a time of 17:01.60
Robinson provided the top finish for the men with a sixth-place time of 24:05.37 in the 8,000-meter race.
He was the top team finisher, as the five runners to finish ahead of him all competed unattached.
Both Annie and Ridge were redshirted last year Calkins said. We may have taken a hit then
but they've come back strong this year. Hopefully
they can keep the train going and lead this team to some success this year.
Noah Howkins came in ninth and Scott Meyers was close behind in 11th.
Although he likes the senior leadership, Calkins said it's especially positive when younger athletes contribute to a team's results.
For the women, that came from Allison Stillwell, Emily Pifer and Lauren Fett, who also placed in the top 16.
Freshmen Chase Robinson and Nick Hissrich also competed for Ohio Friday.
We had a lot of young athletes on the women's side run in the meet
Calkins said, and we had a few underclassmen step up and fill some spots for us on the men's side as well.
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Sports
Mark Emery
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