Results from the weekend

With one month to go until the 2008 OAC Championships in Marietta the first weekend in October saw teams competing everywhere from Salisbury, Maryland to Louisville, Kentucky. Here is a recap of the weekend action -

B-W : Took the weekend off to rest up for next weekends All-Ohio Championships in Delaware.

Capital : Also took the weekend off to rest of for next weekends All-Ohio Championships in Delaware.

H-Berg : Heidelberg was in South Bend competing in the very competitive Notre Dame Invitational. The Gold Race (D2, D3, and small D1 schools) was won by North Central (# 7 in latest USTFCCCA DIII Poll) followed by Grand Valley State (# 10 in DII Poll) with Stevens Point (# 4) and Calvin (# 2) finishing 3rd and 4th. Heidelberg was led by Junior Devin Butcher who continues to show his leadership capabilities this year. Click here for the Heidelberg release.

JCU : John Carroll ran in the Great Lakes Long and Short Course Championships hosted by Adrian College in Michigan. I'm kind of confused by this event but apparently there is a 5k and an 8k and the combined score of the two events are used to determine the winner. Calvin (# 2) won the meet while JCU was led by Senior Daniel Diruzza who ran a 28:05 to place 15th in the 8k. The full John Carroll release can be found here.

Marietta : The Pioneers traveled over to Salisbury Maryland (home of ex-Heidelberg coach Kevin Lucas) for the Don Cathcart Invitational. East Stroudsburg University won the meet with 46 points while Marietta finished 7th with 181 points. They were led by Junior Josh Mickle who finished 8th covering the 8k course in 26:49. The Marietta recap can be found here.

MTU : Mount Union got a preview of the 2008 Nationals course as they traveled to Hanover Indiana for the pre-national meet. The 23rd ranked purple raiders finished 3rd to Allegheny (# 17) and Trinity (# 30). Junior Dan Whisler and Senior Dustin Ford ran impressive races finishing 13th and 14th respectively in a time of 26:09. The 1-5 split of Mount Union was 43 seconds. At the time this article was written the Mount Union website did not have a recap on the race.

Muskingum : The Fighting Muskies also rested up this weekend.

ONU : Ohio Northern sat out their top guys while the rest of the team ran at the Earlham Invite. The Ohio Northern website did not have a recap of the race when this article was written.

Otterbein : The Cardinals of Westerville also ran at Earlham on Saturday. Unlike ONU however they ran their top guys. Otterbein finished second to Rose-Hulman (32-35) but had a very impressive pack with a 1-3 split of 11 seconds, a 1-5 split of 21 seconds and a 1-7 split of 44 seconds. If Otterbein can keep that pack together but get just a little faster they can really surprise some people in the post season. The Otterbein website did not have a recap of the race at the time this article was written.

Wilmington : Junior Austin Stiles continued to impress this season leading the way for the Quacker team in the Greater Louisville Classic. Stiles finished 25th in the Blue race with a time of 26:31 as the team finished 5th with 195 points. A recap of the race from the Wilmington website can be found here.


Well there is your OACDistance.com recap of the action this weekend. I'll give the best performance of the weekend to Heidelberg Junior Devin Butcher who finished 20th at the Notre Dame Invite with a time of 25:27. The best team performance of the weekend goes to Otterbein for their awesome pack running at the Earlham Invite.

Next Friday, in my opinion, is when season really begins. The All-Ohio Chamipionships in Delaware will be our first look at exactly how the teams stack up against not only each other but the rest the schools in Ohio.