Ohio men's cross country find camaraderie through variety of traditions.
Fifth-year senior Jack Shaeffer summarized this season by explaining the OU alumni tradition of bringing an RV from Columbus to the Mid-American Conference Championships and cheering the Bobcats on.
This year, Shaeffer said it looked like the tradition was going to skip a year. The alumni tried to rent an RV three different times, but each attempt failed.
Similarly, it appeared finishing in the top part of the MAC wasn't in the cards for the Bobcats this season, as injuries hampered them all year.
Michael McKean was a key cog looking to finish near the top at MAC's this year, but his hip injury would not relent. Just as the Bobcat alumni were uncertain about finding an RV, the coaches did not know what to expect from their team heading into the stretch run of the season.
Then, on the night before MAC Championships, Shaeffer said the team was staying at an alumni member's house, and all of a sudden, an RV pulled into the drive way.
"Three alumni just rolled up in this old 1992 crappy Browns RV," Shaeffer said. "You've got a tent that comes out of the side that was missing one of the latches, and the steps would break if you stepped on them."
Shaeffer said alumni attending the race had pooled their money together and bought the RV eight hours before the race.
Similarly, the current Bobcats ended up pooling their talent together to finish fifth at MAC Championships, which fulfilled their goal they had set at the beginning of the season.
In both cases, the brotherhood of Ohio is exemplified.
Coaches Clay Calkins and Mitch Bentley said on multiple occasions this team is one of the most "close-knit teams" they have seen in years, and Bentley attributed it to having individual assistants for each team.
"What I've noticed is in the past you would get cliques of all the senior or junior men and women," Bentley said. "And they'd have so much to talk about among themselves, that your freshmen and sometimes even sophomores would feel left out. What I've noticed this year is, you know, you're bumping shoulders as a senior with a freshman and there's nobody else to talk to so I think they've felt a lot more inclusion into what's going on."
Freshman Zach Zimmerman confirmed Bentley's insights, saying the upperclassmen preached to the freshmen to get to know everyone on the team, because they were all "brothers".
"We're out here every day doing workouts together, so it's hard not to be like family," freshman Kyle Bussard said.
Bussard said the "closeness" of the team has a positive impact on Ohio's performance.
"It definitely pushes everyone a lot harder because when you're out there in a race, you're not just running for yourself anymore," Bussard said.
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