Both the men and women’s Ohio cross country teams began the 2011 season strong Saturday morning in the Marietta College Carl Broughton Invitational.
The men took first place overall with 30 team points to begin their season by defeating Alderson Broaddus College and Marietta College who finished the meet with 36 and 57 points, respectively.
Leading the way for the Ohio men were Matt Michno and Jacob Stephens, who took first and second place in the race. Michno finished with a time of 28:17.91 in his victory, while Stephens was not far behind in second place with a final time of 28:33.87.
“We had a good opener for all of the men,” said Ohio coach Clay Calkins. “I think we now have a pretty good handle on where all the guys are at and the freshmen did well for their first race.”
Five of the seven Bobcat runners finished in the top 12 spots to help clinch the win.
In the women’s race, which featured the Salem International University team in addition to Alderson Broaddus and Marietta, the Ohio women finished in second with 37 overall points.
Taking the top team spot was Alderson Broaddus, whose 33 team points barely topped the Bobcats’ 37.
Leading performers for the Ohio women were Lauren Fett (21:12.84), Kristen Altenburger (21:43.36) and Erica Toussant (22:12.70) finishing in third, fifth and eighth place, respectively.
"I’m not really concerned that the women didn’t win their race but the men did,” Calkins said. “We got a good gauge of where everyone was at and that is mainly what we were looking for.”
Finishing in first place in the women’s race was Alderson’s Ashley Teets (19:22.21) who finished almost an entire minute before the second place runner Reba Leonard (20:18.17).
Running for both the men and women’s squads were what Calkins labeled the “B-teams,” which were racing to help decide the ranking order of the team.
“No one that raced on Saturday will race again at Penn State,” Calkins said. “It was great to get some runners out that aren’t going to travel with us next week, but we have most of the top spots now set.”
cl027410@ohiou.edu
