The Ohio men's and women's cross country teams will look to win the Ohio Invitational for the fifth straight year.
It’s not common for Ohio to host races, and it’s even more rare to have its first cross country meet of the season at home.
Coach Clay Calkins wanted to try something a little different this year, and that is how Ohio will open its men’s and women’s cross country season with the Ohio Invitational.
“It will be good running at home this early in the season,” Calkins said.
Even though they will be running the same course that they practice on, the runners are excited to run at home because they will get the opportunity to shine in front of their family and friends — something most won’t get the opportunity to do on the road.
The men will be competing against one other school, West Virginia Wesleyan, but Calkins still plans to run his entire squad.
“This week is going to be more of a workout situation for the men” Calkins said.
Although Calkins will treat the Ohio Invitational as a competitive meet, the stakes aren’t too high this week.
“I’m trying to tailor my mind,” senior Chase Robinson said.
Robinson is excited to run at home and even though there is no real competition, this will be more of a mental race than a physical race to him.
With Calkins training both of his squads up until Friday’s meet, he knows his squad won’t be fresh, but it will get them more training — more specifically for the women’s squad.
The women’s squad will have a little more competition as they will see a few Mid-American Conference teams. Calkins is keying in on Ball State and Miami this week for the women.
It’s really good for us to gauge where we are as a team,” said junior Tessa Weigand.
This also is a confidence boost with this being the first meet. It will also be the Bobcats’ first without Juli Accurso, who earned All-American honors the past three years. Senior Morgan Reichert and junior Kayla Scott have been named team captains heading into the season.
While the temperatures are expected to remain hot Friday afternoon, the men and women hope to each win the Ohio Invitational for the fifth straight year.
The meet will be at 3:00 p.m. for the men and 4:00 p.m. for the women on the Ohio University Golf Course.
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