Only one woman runner has won back-to-back-to back Mid-American Conference Championships and that’s Ohio’s Juli Accurso.
Accurso, a senior, won her third consecutive MAC Championship during Saturday’s 6k race with a time of 20:37.46, which was more than 30 seconds faster than the second runner to cross the finish line.
“It’s a really great feeling,” Accurso said. “It’s something I wouldn’t have been able to do without all of the support. We’re just one big family.”
Coach Clay Calkins said he was proud of Accurso and considered the feat next to impossible to obtain.
As a team, the Bobcats concluded their season with a middle-of-the-pack performance Saturday at the MAC Championships in Bowling Green, as the men finished fourth overall, while the women finished in fifth.
Following Accurso’s victory, a pair of sophomores were the next runners to cross the finish line for Ohio with Krista Roehlig placing 22nd overall with a time of 22:03.93, while Caroline Hildebrand finished 29th with her 22:18.29 time.
Senior Melissa Thompson placed 33rd individually and sophomore Kayla Scott finished 38th as the final runners to round out the top five scorers for the Bobcats.
After losing junior Morgan Reichert to an injury earlier this season, the women struggled to replace her performances in Ohio’s line up.
“When you lose your number two (runner), it was a tough loss for us and affected the outcome of the conference meet,” Calkins said. “These things are uncontrollable and we’re looking forward to the future.”
Miami won the women’s race, followed by Toledo, Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan.
“The top five has been there all year,” Calkins said. “Miami got the job done, hats off to them. Toledo on paper was the team to beat. We were a little dinged up.”
Although the men didn’t have any runners dominate the wet and muddy course, each of Ohio’s runners clustered together during the 8k race to finish between 19th and 28th place for the team’s best finish since 2007.
“We were really proud [of the guys],” Calkins said. “No one was first or second team All-MAC and to get fourth we just stacked it up.”
Junior Jacob Stephens (25:46.59) was the first Bobcat to finish, placing 19th before classmate
Kurt Steinmuller (25:53.25) and senior Chase Robinson (25:55.41) crossed the finish line next in 23rd and 24th place, respectively.
Ohio then claimed the 27th, 28th and 29th spots with senior Brandon O’Malley (26:00.88), sophomore Jake Gentile (26:01.50) and senior Noah Hawkins (26:02.13) rounding out the team’s scoring.
“Going into this, our team felt like we had something to prove and a chip on our shoulder,” Stephens said. “Coach predicted me to finish 26th and I wanted to pass that… 25 minutes of pain for a lot of glory. It was a great feeling and this was my best race.”
The men’s top individual runner was Buffalo senior Zachary Ahart, who ran a 24:47.60 final time.
Eastern Michigan also won their 18th MAC Championship in program history and was followed by Akron, Central Michigan and Ohio.
“(Our runners) did a great job,” Calkins said. “The future looks really good for us.”
gh181212@ohiou.edu
@charliehatch_
