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For the second time in three years the Ohio Athletic Conference will be represented by three schools at the NCAA Cross Country Championships.
#14 Ohio Northern grabbed their second consecutive automatic bid to Nationals after finishing in the top two at yesterday's Great Lakes Regional hosted to perfection by the OAC's Otterbein College. Ohio Northern was just two weeks removed from winning their second OAC cross country title. Northern celebrated the top two overall OAC individuals in the race--Senior's Jim O'Brien and Thomas Adam. Northern's entire top 5 garnered All-Region honors (top 35 individuals)
#22 Mount Union, who finished a close second to ONU at the OAC Championships, picked up where they left off, with an impressive third place showing yesterday. Mount, who was second overall to Case Western at All-Ohio (DIII) earlier in the season and has won several invitationals has put together quite the body of work heading into Saturday's race at Hanover.
Sophomore Ty Griffin and senior Dustin Ford lead Mount with top 10 finishes, coming in just behind OAC Champion Devin Butcher (Heidelberg). Mount's top 4 earned All-Region honors on the day.
Unranked Heidelberg defeated #27 Case Western and #35 Denison en route to their third consecutive NCAA Championship appearance thanks to great front-running by junior's Devin Butcher, Scott Lasch and freshman Jamie Martin. Heidelberg and Calvin were the only teams that could boast placing three individuals inside the top 15 (Calvin actually fit four there).
Recent trends:
This will be Mount's 18th trip in school history and 5th in 8 years,
Heidelberg's 6th overall, 6th in 12 years and third straight,
and Ohio Northern's 3rd overall and third straight.
(more historical info may be found here)
The OAC's History of Bids to NCAA XC Nats:
Otterbein has gone 9 times (last in 1995),
Baldwin-Wallace 8 (last in 1983),
John Carroll 3 (last in 1977),
and Marietta twice (last in 1971).
Looking to Saturday, there seems to be plenty of reason for optimism to the OAC faithful. All three teams show no signs of slowing down heading into Hanover--it could be a historical day for the conference. 2006 was the first time in OAC history that three teams were represented at cross country nationals at the same time. That year Heidelberg finished 20th, Mount Union was 24th and Ohio Northern was 32nd. This year it seems very possible that the conference could fit three teams inside the top 25 on a good day.
In terms of individual team success, Ohio Northern certainly has the potential to improve upon last year's 17th overall finish as does Heidelberg on last year's 27th place finish.
The conference also looks to have plenty All-American hopefuls, including Jim O'Brien (2007 All-American), Thomas Adam (6th overall @ Regionals), Devin Butcher (7th @ Regionals, 1st @ OAC), Ty Griffin (8th @ Regionals), Dustin Ford (9th @ Regionals) and several others.
2008 Great Lakes Region Results!
Sunday's NCAA At-Large Announcements!
Five in from the Great Lakes!
Sunday, November 16, 2008
OAC Trifecta Headed to Hanover!
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6 comments:
I can't believe Case made it! Awesome!!
Congrats to Northern, Mount and Berg for making it nationals and to Otterbein for running a great meet.
if heidelberg doesn't win the great lakes region next year after everything calvin, northern and mount lose this year then they seriously need to fire their entire staff. that team made nationals by the skin of their teeth this year and ran so lucky at otterbein last weekend
Heidelberg should be very good next year...but shouldn't they have been very good this year? They ran well late, but not as good as the talent on that team would indicate.
I see the same 4 teams being top 4 next year, even after graduation.
Mount needs to fill one spot and that is Ford. Dieterich graduates but Wolfe steps in that spot nicely as a 15:40's 5ker. So they will need either a freshman or someone outside the top 7 to step up next fall.
But Berg is definitely the favorite next year. I don't care who wins as long as it isn't Calvin
You actually think ONU will be in the top 4 after graduating everyone but Bowsher? Someone is drinking the polar bear kool aid.
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