Sports
Cross Country: Men and Women Defend Home Turf
By: Erick Starkey, Zach Scott
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The Ohio Bobcats Cross Country Program secured two victories in this weekend’s Ohio Invitational, in both the men’s and women’s events. It was the second consecutive year that the women won the event held on the Ohio University Golf Course.
Freshman Allison Roeth led the Ohio women to the win with a first place time of 18:35.96. Coming in second place with a time of only four seconds slower was freshman Stephanie Loshbough with a time of 18:39.40.
Rounding out the top five for Ohio were Lauren Adkins, Hayley Stegmiller and Sarah Kaufman. The runners finished third, fifth and sixth, respectively.
Overall, the Bobcats put in a solid effort with seven runners finishing in the top eight. The team finished with an average time of 19:05 on the 5k course.
The Ohio men’s cross country team defended its home turf on Saturday as well, defeating Marietta College by a combined 8 minutes and 17 seconds in the Bobcats’ lone home meet this year.
Although the individual first place finish went to Marietta's Caleb Ellis, with a time of 25:13.92, Ohio secured the overall victory in commanding fashion. The Bobcats swept places two through nine.
Second place individually went to Ohio redshirt freshman Matt Watts, who led his team to victory with a personal best time of 25:49.12.
“I’m really satisfied with my time,” said Watts. “I was only hoping to break 27 today but…we’ve been hitting it pretty hard in workouts, and [the coaches] are really good at pushing us in practice.”
Watts and his teammates are looking forward to using this race as a springboard into a strong season.
“People tend to underestimate us,” Watts says. “Last year we finished one place higher than anyone had us seeded in the MAC. We’ve always been a plus one team.”
With home victories in the books, both the men’s and women’s cross country teams will try to continue their winning ways on Sept. 21 as they head to Toledo for the Bubble Buster Invitational.