In the All-Ohio Collegiate Championships this past weekend, Ohio’s Juli Accurso was in a race of her own, going wire-to-wire and finishing three seconds ahead of second place.
In her victorious performance in Cedarville, Accurso led from the start to finish and had no one to compete with but herself.
“Sitting out last weekend definitely allowed my legs to be fresh,” Accurso said. “Watching my teammates run at home made me want to go out to All-Ohio and run as hard as I possibly could.”
Sophomore Accurso won the individual five-kilometer race by finishing three seconds ahead of Miami’s Margaret Bingham.
In a meet that hosted almost 50 schools from across the state of Ohio on each the men’s and women’s side, the Bobcats placed close to the top in both races.
The men finished in fourth with 158 team points, while the women were able to finish in third as a team with 70 points overall.
“We did very well this week, I’m proud of our runners,” coach Clay Calkins said. “Coming into the race, we were hoping for the women to finish in the top three and the men to place top five. We achieved both of those goals.”
On the women’s side, Ohio finished behind only Miami and Dayton.
Aside from Accurso’s (17:55.38) victorious performance, Emily Pifer (18:05.05), Morgan Reichert (18:34.92) and Melissa Thompson (18:36.51) were all able to finish in the top 20 among individual runners in a race that featured 317 women.
In fourth place, the men finished behind Cincinnati, Kent State and Akron.
Top performers for the men were Tyler Ames (25:33.78), Noah Howkins (25:41.65), Nick Hissrich (25:49.12) and Chase Robinson (26:01.34), all of whom finished among the top 40 runners.
“Both teams raced really well and I think that we proved as a program we can compete with anyone,” Robinson said. “I, however, did not have my best race. I expect to come back in these next few races and compete really well.”
The Bobcats will not race again until Oct. 16 at pre-nationals in Indiana.
Calkins said he is excited to utilize the upcoming time off to prepare for more high-profile races later in the season.
“We’re going to have a tough week of practice all of this coming week,” he said. “We normally peak toward the end of the season and hopefully this extended period of time off will help us get closer to the best we can be.”
