The Ohio cross country teams fought the poor conditions in the Ohio Invitational on Saturday, as the women grabbed second place and the men took third place on the soggy course.
We didn't finish where we wanted to
Ohio coach Clay Calkins said. We just had teams run better than us today on both sides.
The Baldwin-Wallace women took first place ahead of Ohio with a score of 40. The Ohio men finished with 53 points, behind first-place West Virginia Wesleyan, 39 points, and second-place Concord, 40 points.
Senior Andrea Maas led the Ohio women in their 5K, crossing the line in first place, far ahead of the other competitors with a time of 19:10.9. The second-place runner finished 40 seconds behind her.
Maas, who was racing for the first time this season, cited practice as the reason she was able to keep her pace despite being so far ahead of the competition for most of the race.
It definitely is tough she said of being isolated in the lead. That's what practices are for though to go through that and push ourselves.
Also finishing in the women's top ten for Ohio were sophomore Julia Weisenborn, 20:35.8, in sixth place, and freshman Sarah LeDonne, 20:43.2, in ninth.
On the men's side, Brock Schwarz led Ohio with a fourth place finish in the 8K with a time of 27:57.3.
I did a lot better than I thought I would
Schwarz said. I just wanted to take it out slow and see what I could do.
The sloppy weather conditions on the course played a huge role in the meet, slowing times considerably. Maas said she was targeting a low 18-minute time, but settled for a time low in the 19th minute because of the course conditions.
(The weather) was a pretty big factor
she said. It was really windy and plus going around the turns and stuff you had to be very careful.
All the athletes are dealing with (the weather)
Calkins said. It's not a disadvantage for one team over another. We run in grass when it's wet
and train when it's wet. I think the team was adequately prepared
it's just that we fell a little short today.
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