Ohio produced a solid effort over the weekend as the men’s and women’s cross country teams traveled to Louisville, Kentucky, to compete in the Louisville Cross Country Classic.
The men finished in 20th place out of 41 teams while the women finished 28th out of 39 teams participating.
While the team did not perform up to what they have been used to in the last several meets, they still ended up with solid times and had several individual runners perform at a high level despite facing tough competition.
Redshirt junior Griffin Butler continued his strong season and finished 23rd out of a total of 373 runners in the 8k race. He ended with a time of 24:18.3.
The men’s performance also featured a solid outing from senior Erik McKean (25:05.4) and junior Seth Gard (25:05.6) who are no strangers to strong performances in the 2019 campaign. The two finished back to back with only .2 seconds separating their times.
Junior Hailey Bowes added to her productive season and placed 31st out of 343 racers. She finished the 5k race with a time of 17:42.8.
Ohio also got a surprise performance from some unlikely candidates in sophomore Madelyn Bartolone (18:42.9) and junior Jessie Hartman (18:48.4) who look to continue their strong races into the next meet.
The results were not what the Bobcats are used to so far this season, however, they have much room to grow and will now have a week off to improve before they compete next.
Ohio’s next race will be Pre Nationals in Terre Haute, Indiana, and will take place Oct. 19.
