After a two-week hiatus from competition, the Ohio men’s and women’s cross country teams will return to action Friday at the NCAA Regionals meet in Madison, Wisc.
Prior to the start of the season, coach Clay Calkins said he was optimistic that the men could place fifth at the Mid-American Conference Championships.
But after the men finished fourth at the MAC Championships, Calkins is taking the squad to the NCAA Regionals with the No. 12 ranking after a solid season.
“(The men) just pack it up,” Calkins said. “It’ll be a tall order for (12th place), but they can hold it. They’re on an upward swing.”
Overall, the men’s squad is relatively young, with the majority of its top runners being just sophomores, including Jarrod Genther, Jake Gentile, Jacob Stephens and Kurt Steinmuller.
On the women’s side, the Bobcats have been plagued by injuries throughout the second half of the season.
Ohio started the year with a second-place finish at Miami and then followed up with a victory in the Ohio Invitational.
The Bobcats then finished second at the Wake Forest Invitational, but as competition got harder, the women began to struggle.
To make matters worse, junior Morgan Reichert, Ohio’s No. 2 runner, endured an injury and missed the second half of the year.
With a fifth place finish at the MAC Championships, the Bobcats have gone down in the region’s rankings.
“We got bumped out of the top 15 rankings on the regional side,” Calkins said. “It would be nice to get it back.”
Calkins said sophomores Tessa Weigand and Caroline Hildebrand have stepped up over the last few weeks.
The women will run at 11 a.m, before the men follow at noon.
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