The Bobcats earned their best finish at the Mid-American Conference Championships since 2011 this weekend, finishing ninth with 33.5 points.
Ohio’s journey throughout the three-day tournament, however, wasn’t always positive.
The Bobcats only scored a mere three points in the 10000-meter run, which secured ninth place for Ohio the first day, Thursday.
Poor weather greeted the athletes back on the track in Akron Friday, causing several delays and a struggling Ohio team.
Alexis Geiger, a senior, who was originally seeded in fourth in the long jump, placed 11th, while senior Ashley Waddington in the 3000-meter steeplechase finished in 10th after being seeded sixth. Both events resulted in Ohio falling back to tenth place.
Sophomore Chanda Cuckler kept the Bobcats from moving further down the team rankings, as she recorded the second-best heptathlon result in program history, finishing second with 5064 points.
It wasn’t until Saturday that the Bobcats improved their performance, scoring 24.50 of Ohio’s total 33.50 points.
The day started with junior Melissa Thompson running a school record time of 4:26.04 seconds in the 15000-meters, as she finished in second place. Teammate Juli Accurso, a junior, finished in eighth in the same event. In the one event, the Bobcats scored more points than they had the two days prior.
Just 90 minutes later, senior Danielle Winningham continued Ohio’s distance success by placing fourth in the 800-meters with a time of 2:09.04, which was four seconds better than her regular season time.
Cuckler also returned to competition for the Bobcats on Saturday to compete in the high jump, in which she tied for eighth place with a height of 5 ft., 5 in.
Finally, Accurso secured Ohio’s recapture of the ninth place, by finishing first in the 5000-meter run in a time of 16:36.65 minutes.
am794811@ohiou.edu
