The Ohio men's and women's cross country teams traveled more than seven hours to Urbana, Ill., Saturday for the Illini Challenge, but the trip did not affect the runners.
The men's team placed five runners in the top 26, en route to what would have been a third-place finish had team scores been kept.
I think running there was a really good tune-up before the (Mid-American Conference) meet
Drew Frum said. It was a solid team race.
Frum, Ohio's top finisher, ran 25:31 on the Illini's new eight-kilometer (five mile) course, while placing eighth of 55 runners.
Brian List, who ran 25:47 for a 14th-place finish, followed Frum as Ohio's second runner. List was one of five Bobcats who recorded personal bests during the race.
David Houchens, who was Ohio's sixth finisher, said everybody on the team is getting faster and starting to peak with the MAC meet in sight.
My legs felt the best of any race this year he said. I felt like I'm just now starting to get that extra top gear. I'm expecting another PR in two weeks.
Sykes, Craig Leon and Austin Schiele rounded out the Bobcats top five by finishing within three seconds of one another at 24th, 25th and 26th.
Assistant coach Justin Kempe said he was not worried about Schiele's performance. Schiele had finished first or second in nearly every meet this season.
The guys worked real hard in practice last week and most of them were a little tired going into this race Kempe said. It's better for him to have a fluke race now than when it counts.
Women finish ninth
Saturday was not as enjoyable for the women's team as it was for the men's team, however. Ohio finished ninth out of 10 teams.
Ohio freshman Andrea Maas finished 10th of 85 runners with a time of 18:16, leading the team for the sixth straight race.
Ohio's next four runners finished within 33 seconds of one another, though none finished better than 57th.
Alicia Myers, Meghan Bolton, Lauren Birnie and Ali Green all ran between 19:46 and 20:19, and finished 57th, 61st, 69th and 70th, respectively.
Despite its finish, the team worked well together, Kempe said.
They pulled each other along throughout the race
he said. Unfortunately
they didn't get out very well. That's one of the things they're going to learn from.
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