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#9 Ohio Northern University opened their season Saturday on the course they hope to make history on in a little over two months at Hanover. Northern finished 3rd behind the 4th ranked team in the nation, Wisconsin-Stevens Point and DII Bellarmine University. The Polar Bears were lead by seniors Jim O'Brien (7th) and Paul Lewis (9th) who finished in 26:33 and 26:36.
Baldwin-Wallace and Wilmington rounded out the trifecta of conference schools represented at the Madison-Kiwanis Invtational. B-W seniors Derek Hill (26:20) and Nate Bowen (26:27) impressed up front both defeating UWSP's third man en route to 4th and 5th place finishes overall.
The Quaker's were lead by junior Austin Stiles who finished 23rd overall in 27:04. Baldwin-Wallace finished 6th overall on the day and Wilmington was 9th, respectively.
#31 Mount Union College's Dan Whistler picked up where he left off last week with an overall win at Akron's Tommy Evans Invite. The meet was arranged to where the Division I schools that competed ran against each other, while the two Division III foes went head-to-head. Mount Union won the de facto 4-mile dual meet against conference rival John Carroll by a 15-50 score, as the top seven Purple Raiders claimed the first seven places.
JCU, who went into the meet with great news, welcoming back the OAC's defending indoor 1k champion, senior Daniel DiRuzza, was again lead by fellow senior Nick Habursky who finished 25th overall in a time of 22:35.
Muskingum College essentially opened their season Saturday (they had run their alumni meet the weekend before) at the Wittenberg Invitational. The Muskie men were lead by freshman Michael Besl (31:55) who was followed closely by junior Ian Hankins (31:58).
Capital, Heidelberg, Marietta and Otterbein all had the weekend off.
4 comments:
Not a real impressive start from ONU. Definitely appear to be overrated at this point. Based on what they ran Saturday and what Berg ran last weekend, I'd say Berg might be the better team. It is still early though.
It wouldn't surprise me if ONU had a plan in place going into Hanover in which they were only allowed to go out so fast the first couple of miles. No way this team's showing all their cards right now, and who could blame them? They have much bigger fish to fry. Also, keep in mind, Hammond, the Purdue transfer didn't race.
At the same time, Hill and Bowen look great. Those times on that course this early are pretty legit.
The key is the close of your comment: "it is still early though."
Yes, it is. Heidelberg has a great team, but they've given us no reason to doubt that Northern's the best team in the conference. It's going to take a tremendous effort for any conference school to take them down. And the 'Berg has plenty of question marks of their own right now. We can't forget about Mount either. They've opened the year in impressive fashion despite the fact that the guys I would have certainly predicted to be their 1-2 punch were 3-4 this past weekend. If I'm Mount, I'm optimistic about what can be accomplished this season based on these first two races.
Bottom line: 2+ months is an eternity. There's just so much running left to be done. It certainly looks to be a great season though.
I was on the BW bandwagon going into the season and still think they're great up front just as good Burg and Mount but after this weekend I'm not sure if they can find five guys to hang with those guys. Where is the MAC transfer and what's wrong with Gibbons and Eberts?
I am the MAC transfer.
-Gibbons
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