Saturday’s Miami Invitational involved just handful of schools, but in terms of building confidence, it was exactly the way the Ohio men’s and women’s cross country teams desired to begin the season.
Despite the men being picked to finish seventh by Mid-American Conference coaches in the conference’s preseason poll, the Bobcats finished their first meet of the year in first place.
“It was a close competition, but the men stepped up,” coach Clay Calkins said.
He added that Saturday was a solid matchup for sophomore Jarrod Genther, who led Ohio and finished third as an individual with a time of 14:59.2.
After Genther, the Bobcats filled the sixth through ninth overall finishes, as junior Jacob Stephens (15:04.4), senior Chase Robinson (15:11.9), senior Brandon O’Malley (15:12.8) and junior Kurt Steinmuller (15:13.1) claimed the spaces, respectively.
The host school finished the meet in second place overall, but it claimed the top spots for individual performances.
Senior David Wing finished in first place with a time of 14:55.3, while senior Matt Morol finished the race in second (14:57.6).
Aside from the top two finishers, Miami’s next runner to cross the finish line did not place for another 20 seconds when freshman Stephen Biebelhausen finished in 10th place (15:16.0).
The women’s team finished second overall during the competition, trailing only the RedHawks. The Bobcats took the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh spots in the race.
Senior standout Juli Accurso led Ohio with a time of 17:30.2. Following her were sophomore Kayla Scott (17:30.4), sophomore Krista Roeling (17:32.8) and junior Morgan Reichert (17:34.6).
Melissa Thompson, a senior, finished in 13th place with a time of 17:53.7 to round out the Bobcat women’s scorers.
Miami grabbed the top three times by a trio of RedHawk juniors, Jess Hoover (17:13.6), Anna Lamb (17:23.2) and Melissa Girgis (17:29.5).
The next meet for the Ohio men and women will be at home on Saturday at the Ohio Invitational.
For the men, it will be another chance to top the leaderboard and prove that their seventh-place projection was too low.
As for the women, they will look to follow up with another impressive team performance and contend for one of the places atop the MAC.
gh181212@ohiou.edu
@charliehatch
