The men's and women's cross country teams began their seasons by hosting the Ohio Invitational on Friday.
The Ohio Invitational showed a tale of two races.
On the men’s side, Ohio was racing more against itself than against the only other competing school, West Virginia Wesleyan.
In the other race, the women competed against Mid-American Conference teams Ball State and Miami. West Virginia Wesleyan rounded out the field.
The men had an overwhelming lead against West Virginia Wesleyan, taking the first ten places.
Junior Jake Gentile was the first Ohio runner to cross the finish line.
Friday’s meet set the stage for what the men’s team has to offer for the rest of the season.
“I think we have a good shot at winning MAC’s this year just by what we displayed today,” Gentile said.
Ohio dominated the rankings giving them a total of 15 points, leaving Wesleyan with 50 points.
Behind Gentile were juniors Jarrod Genther and Kurt Steinmuller, and sophomore Michael Mckean. They placed second, third, and fourth, respectively with their times all within tenths of a second of each other.
Coach Clay Calkins saw that this meet proves that his men’s team is going to have a promising season.
“They came back in great shape after this summer…this is one of the best teams we have had in years,” Calkins said.
Calkins knows his men’s team will do well this season.
Their skills showed on Friday and will show more as the stakes get higher and competition gets tougher.
For the women’s squad, the meet has a whole new meaning to it.
Junior Kayla Scott finished with a time of 22:55.60 just seconds behind the two Miami runners.
“Coming off this summer I was questioning how my season would go,” said Scott.
She knows that she needs to close the gap between herself and Miami, and her chance will come sooner rather than later. She says the best way for her to do that is to bring her teammates with her.
Ohio placed second overall with 31 points. Miami took first place by just one point with 30. Ball State placed third with 78 points and West Virginia Wesleyan finished fourth with 107 points.
“To come that close to last season’s MAC champions is still remarkable,” said Calkins.
With this being the only home meet of the season, Calkins would have liked to win, but is not disappointed at all in his team’s performance.
“Early in the season we typically are not a great team, we generally come on as the season progresses,” said Calkins.
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