The Ohio men's and women's cross country teams began their seasons Friday at home by hosting the Ohio Invitational.
Men
Ohio claimed the first nine spots in Friday's meet against lone competitor, West Virginia Wesleyan College.
“I think we have a good shot at winning MAC’s this year,” junior Jake Gentile said.
And a good shot it right.
“They need to know that victory is not out of their relm,” Clay Calkins said. “You have to be somewhat realistic and realize that you are up against some good competition in the conference."
The men will soon find out how well they will fare in the Mid-American Conference, as they will travel to Miami and see their first meet against MAC competitors next week.
Friday, Calkins said that even though there weren’t a lot of team’s competing, there was a competition within the team to build each other up and get their times up.
The temperature creeped up to the 90s and caused some troubles for senior runner Chase Robinson.
“It felt rough to finish … I felt like I was dying from the heat,” Robinson said.
With the first meet under their belt, the men’s cross country team sought inter-squad competition, and look to show their real talent and depth next week at the Miami Invitational.
Women
The women opened against MAC competition Friday though and placed second in the meet behind rival Miami.
“It was a rough one,” junior Krista Roehlig described today’s meet.
Between battling the heat and the other runners, it was hard for not only Roehlig, but also the other runners to do as well as they anticipated.
She knew it wasn’t her best performance, but was all that she could do with the sun beaming down during the race.
“Mentally, I had to tell myself to keep pushing and hurry up and finish,” she said.
Roehlig placed fifth in the race behind teammate Kayla Scott, who finished third.
“It feels great coming off of this summer…I wasn’t expecting to start so fast so soon,” Scott said.
In front of her were Miami runners taking first and second.
“I am going to try and bring the girls that I raced with from Ohio with me to try and close the gap,” Scott said.
She said meets with MAC competition won’t really start counting until the conference tournament comes around, though.
With heat playing a big factor in both the men’s and women’s competitions today, they were able to cope with it and do their best; hopefully the heat will die down come the next few weeks.
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