OAC Championships

Its has been a few weeks so I just wanted to give a quick recap of the indoor championships.

Right now, Alan Bowsher is proving even with graduation nearing ONU will be tough next year by proving he is one of the top runners in the conference right now. In the 3k, it appeared Chase Schneider had made the right move to break the field only to be kicked down in the final meters by Alan(8:50). Then Alan came back on Saturday and took 2nd to teammate Thomas Adam in the 5k (15:31). Those two performances won him the Distance Runner of the Meet along with his fellow teammate Rachel Smith who won the mile in 5:10 and came back in the 1k and finished 2nd in 3:08, CONGRATS!!!!

Also, I think it would only be appropriate to congratulate those runners who sacrificed for their teams at the conference meet and ran 4 events, which is absolutely amazing at the collegiate level to be competitive at the highest level when others are specializing in one event. Those performers would be Jimmy O'Brien(ONU) and D'Arcy Hlavin(BW). Jimmy was part of one of the greatest finishes I have ever witnessed in winning the DMR, winning the mile, winning the 800, and then came up just a little short of duplicating Friday nights performance anchoring the 2nd place 4x4 team. D'Arcy like Jimmy was on the winning DMR, took 2nd in the mile, took 3td in the 800, and then finished the meet running the 5k and finished 4th in (19:11).

It will be interesting to see if anyone is able to step up and compete with ONU's depth on the men's side during the outdoor season. On the women's side, it appears it will continue to be a dog fight.

Getting Tuned up for OAC

It appeared this past weekend was utilized for individuals to run some off events and still qualify for conference. This past weekend was used to improve some marks for some and a last chance opportunity for some other to sneak in. I know it is only the second year I think for the 3k, but I think this standard is entirely too soft and hopefully next year the bar will be set a little higher. With two weeks left to qualify there are already 23 people qualified. Looking at results from this past weekend it appears some of the 800 guys are switching the the 1k to get to conference. There really isn't anything else to say for another week until the meet.

OAC Relays

It might have been cold outside, but that did not seem to be the case indoors on Saturday. ONU seemed to have the class of the field at this point of the season when it comes to distance running. Not only are their top runners doing well but their depth can be somewhat discouraging to the competition right now.

Some noteworthy performance came right at the beginning of the meet in the 5000m race. On the women's side ONU took the top three spots with Regina Bresson, Kelly Casanova, Mallory Bloom running 18:57, 19:02, and 19:05 respectively. Then on the men's side Thomas Adam, OAC Runner of the Week, and Alan Bowsher distanced Devin Butcher of Heidelberg in the final mile running 15:10 and 15:15.

The women's 3000m was won by Mount Union's Heather Stalter in 10:57 just edging out Tricia Doherty and Emily Tillmaand from John Carroll who ran 11:01 and 11:02. On the men's side Kevin Stack and Nick Baker ran a smart race coming from behind in the final laps to finish off another 1-2 punch for ONU in 9:00 and 9:03.

Due to the relay style of the meet the 3k and 5k were the only distance race contested other than the 4x8 and DMR.

Noteable Performances from weekend

Performances of notes at the Findlay meet, which I witnessed were Jimmy O continuing to run fast as expected running 4:17 in the mile uncontested, an unknown no more Freshman Dan Smith of ONU kicking down Berg's Jamie Martin to run 4:26 and Thomas Adams running 8:53 in what looked to me to be a controlled negative split 3k in a practice type atmosphere of ONU entrants in the race. Not to show a bias to the men in the OAC, Rachel Smith of ONU looked strong early in the season running 5:17 in the mile as did Amy Davis who hit the A standard in the 800 in 2:28.

At the BW meet Ty Griffin looked to be the athlete of the meet winning the mile in 4:21 just edging out Nate Bowen at 4:22 and then finishing off the double with a B standard in the 1k in 2:39. Dustin Ford also looked to have a nice race in the 3k finishing 2nd in 8:58. On the women's side there were a bunch of conference qualifiers. Leading the way were 3 qualifiers in the 3k Krysten Kovach, Karin Coyne (BW), and Rachel Perry (MUC). Also, D'Arcy Hlavin (BW)finished 2nd in the mile in 5:19. Two more qualifiers were Tara Ford (JCU) and D'Arcy Hlavin (BW) hitting the A standard in the 800. Then in the 1k there were to more A standard qualifiers Kimberly Chinn (BW) and Christin Hanley (MUC). Looked to be a great weekend for qualifying on the Women's side at Baldwin Wallace and I would just like to Congratulate D'Arcy on a nice double.

At the Capital meet Abby Ludwig (OC) just missed the A standard in a winning effort of 5:26 in the mile. Then in the 3k Otterbein had two harriors qualify on the Women's side, Andrea Pautsch and Shaylyn Webster. On the Men's side freshman Tim Williard qualified in 9:00 in the 3k and junior Alex Simko dropped down and won the 300 in 37.6.

For more results check out the link http://www.oac.org/MENtrackinScores.shtml

OAC Distance is Back

Just wanted to let everyone know I am going to attempt to keep the sight up and running in the absence of Simpson. I don't know if I can maintain the high expectations of Dan Simpson, but I will attempt to keep the sight going as a platform for OAC distance running.