ATHENS, Ohio - Head Coach Clay Calkins begins his third year at the helm of the Ohio cross country teams. With a nice mixture of youth and experience, the Bobcats will be looking to improve upon a fourth-place finish in the men's Mid-American Conference Championship and a 10th-place finish in the women's MAC Championship.

Last year, the men's team finished as champions of the Ohio Invitational and took fourth place at the All-Ohio Championships. The team had several great individual performances from runners like second-team All-MAC and Ohio Invitational individual champion Jason Linton (Vincent, Ohio) and Mel Brodt Invitational individual champion Austin Schiele (Hudson, Ohio). The MAC Preseason Coaches Poll has the men picked fifth this year, but Calkins is expecting some great things.

"On the men's side we have Jason Linton," said Calkins. "He's out front. Hopefully we will have him healthy for the entire season. He'll definitely be an impact player this season. We have Austin Schiele, Craig Leon (Van Wert, Ohio), Brian King (Richfield, Minn.), and Brian List (Milford, Ohio). Our top nine on the men's team is pretty deep."

"They have us ranked fifth in the men's poll. We hope to finish better than that. It's always a tough conference on the distance side of things."

On the women's side, the team returns first-team All-MAC performer Carime Reinhart (Bascom, Ohio). Reinhart had a standout freshman year and will look to capture her first individual crown this year after finishing third at the All-Ohio Championship, fourth at the Notre Dame Invitational, and fifth at the MAC Championship. Junior Andrea Maas (Cincinnati, Ohio) finished third at the Ohio Invitational a year ago and is expected to bring experience and leadership to the squad this season. The MAC Preseason Coaches Poll has the team picked to finish eighth.

"We hope to have a great year out of Andrea Maas and Carime Reinhart," said Calkins. "They should hopefully be the top two runners on the women's team. We hope some of our top recruits, Rachel Beakas (Waterville, Ohio) and Julia Weisenborn (Bowling Green, Ohio) will be impact runners and contribute from the start. We have Kendra Churchill (Dublin, Ohio) coming back. She was injured last year, so we hope for her to be a top-five runner this season. We have a pretty deep group this year, and I'll be pulling on them to step it up this year."

"On the women's side, they have us ranked eighth. We would like to finish in the top six or better. We have 12 teams in the MAC. It's a tough conference, and the schools will be bringing some of the top athletes in the country to the meets. The eighth-place preseason ranking is better than what we placed last year, but with that said, I'm not settling for that. I want to get into that top six bracket."

Another important component to this year will be assistant coach Mitch Bentley (Ohio '85), who earned All-MAC honors twice in cross country, indoor and outdoor track.

"With implementation and design, Mitch Bentley is the key component," said Calkins. "He's designing workouts and implementing them. My goal is to keep the runners on track academically and psychologically."

The teams begin the season at the Xavier Invitational in Cincinnati, Ohio on September 10, with an 11:00 a.m. start. The teams compete once in Athens this year at the Ohio Invitational on September 24.