The Bobcats wanted to see what they could do at full strength this weekend, and at full strength, they saw results.
The women won the All-Ohio Championship, as Ellen Isaac continued her strong 2015 campaign: winning the event individually. The men, however, finished fifth and had a bit of an off day, coach Clay Calkins said.
Isaac won the event by 10 seconds (21:07.87) — giving her some time to catch her breath before the next finisher crossed.
The coaches said at the beginning of the year Isaac was someone they were eyeing to replace the void left by injured captain Kayla Scott.
Calkins said Isaac, still a junior, has not only a "bright future" in the program, but also a real shot to make it to nationals this year.
The rest of the women's side had a solid outing, as freshman Alyssa Atkinson (22:02.59), Peyton Adkins (22:05.63), Tessa Weigard (22:16.61), Allison Roeth (22:19.28) and Christina Seas (22:19.96) finished ninth, 10th, 12th, 14th and 15th, respectively.
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Calkins said he and coach Tim Sykes had a discussion about how excited they were that the freshman, including Atkinson, was having such an immediate impact on the team.
On the men's side, junior Michael McKean returned to action for the Bobcats and took fourth with a time of 24:39.41, but the next Ohio finisher was junior Alex Wind (25:06.89), who didn’t come in until about 27 seconds and 14 places later.
Following Wind was junior Matt Evans (25:30.77) in 30th and following Evans was sophomore Brad Miller (25:36.81) in 31st. Wind, Evans and Miller finished too far apart, costing the Bobcats valuable points.
Despite the men's struggle, both teams outperformed some Mid-American Conference competition — something Calkins was satisfied with.
The women beat out Miami (OH), Kent State and Akron, with Calkins adding he was encouraged each individual on the women's side matched up well with their Miami counterpart.
The men's side beat out Kent State and Bowling Green, but Calkins was disappointed the men's side didn’t compete as well with some of the regionally ranked teams such as Ohio State and fellow MAC opponent, Akron. The men finished behind Miami (OH), as Calkins said the RedHawks ran a much different, much better, race than they did at Dayton almost a month ago.
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