Sports
Cross Country: Juli Accurso wins MAC Championship
By: Ian McConville
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Juli Accurso won the All-Ohio Collegiate Cross Country Championship individual title earlier this season. She can now add another title to that list: Mid-American Conference individual champion.
“Juli just had a great day and felt good obviously and coming away with the overall individual title is a huge accomplishment for her,” head coach Clay Calkins commented.
The stellar sophomore continued her dominant season in surprising fashion, running a time of 20:35.3 on the 6,000 meter course to claim her first MAC individual title. She beat out her nearest competition by over 10 seconds and paced the Lady Bobcats as they finished in fourth place in Muncie, falling just three points shy of third place Miami and 53 off the total of back-to-back team champion Toledo. Senior Emily Pifer finished in seventh with a time of 21:17.6. Allison Stillwell was the next Bobcat to cross the finish line, coming in with a time of 21:56.5 and a 23rd place finish. Morgan Reichert and Melissa Thompson rounded out the ‘Cats top five, finishing in 27th and 28th places respectively.
“With the parody at the top five teams were tight, and Toledo running at the top of their game, we always strive to be up there. We ran a really solid meet with Juli and Emily finishing First Team All-MAC. We wanted to try and sneak up on Miami, but they ran a great meet,” added Calkins
The Ohio Men’s cross country team finished in fifth place overall. Tyler Ames was the overall leader for the Bobcats, finishing in 10th place in a time of 24:48. Noah Howkins finished 14th after running a time of 24:54.5. Rounding out the top five for the ‘Cats were Chase Robinson in 32nd, Matt Michno in 33rd, and Nick Hissrich in 38th. The Bobcat Men tallied 127 points, putting them 59 points off the pace of repeat champion Eastern Michigan.
Calkins stated that the men’s team over-achieved from where they were projected to finish. He added that Ames and Howkins both claiming Second Team All-MAC honors was a big reason for the team’s performance.
The Bobcats will return to action on November 12 in Toledo for the NCAA Regional Meet.