Bobcats Set For MAC Championships
Oct. 27, 2005 ATHENS, Ohio - Ranked tenth in the Great Lakes Region poll, the men's cross country team with the women travel to DeKalb, Ill. for the Mid-American Conference Championships after a one-week hiatus. The Ohio men will be looking for their fourth conference championship, while the Bobcat women are searching for their ninth MAC crown. The men won a pair of titles in the 1960's, then won their most recent championship in 1996. On the women's side, Ohio dominated the MAC for a decade, winning eight titles between 1987 and 1997. For both teams though awaits a difficult task. Out of the nine men's teams competing, five are ranked in the Great Lakes Region Poll. Picked to win the MAC and currently nationally ranked 30th in the latest United States Cross Country Coaches Association Poll, Eastern Michigan hopes to finally dethrone three-peat MAC Champion Central Michigan. Picked to finish second, Central Michigan is currently ranked 13th in the regional poll behind ninth ranked Miami. Kent State fell back five spots to 15th after the Bobcats finished 23rd in the NCAA Pre-Nationals two weeks ago to take the Golden Flashes' spot. On the women's side, all 12 schools will be competing. Kent State was chosen to win the meet for the second year in a row, but the team lost its leading runner to injury early in the season and only finished ninth at the All-Ohio Championships. The loss has paved the way for Akron to take the title as the Zips have already won three team titles this year including the All-Ohio Championships and the Tommy Evans Invitational. Akron will face competition from Toledo, the current Central Collegiate champion. Led by seniors Jason Linton (Vincent) and Austin Schiele (Hudson), junior Craig Leon (Van Wert), and sophomore Brian King (Richfield, Minn.), the men now find themselves poised to reach the top three after having won both the Central Collegiate Championships and the Ohio Invitational. In 2003, the team finished eighth and moved up four spots in last year's meet. All four men finished in the top-30 last year and will be relied upon to lead the way again this year. They have set or tied personal best times this season, and Linton became the tenth fastest man in Ohio men's cross country history after breaching the 25 minute barrier.
The Ohio men have faced stiff competition this year, including many nationally ranked teams at the Notre Dame Invitational and the NCAA Pre-Nationals. At the All-Ohio Championships, they came close to racing past ranked Ohio State. Head Coach Clay Calkins has set a top-three finish as the goal for the team, and the latest Great Lakes Region poll confirms that the team is capable of making noise at the MAC Championships even though it was picked to finish fifth at the beginning of the year. Led by sophomore Carime Reinhart (Bascom) and junior Andrea Maas (Cincinnati), the women have made great strides this year after finishing tenth in last year's championships. Reinhart placed fifth last year with a time of 18:23 and has already breached the 18 minute mark twice this season. Like Linton, she became the 10th fastest runner in cross country history for her team. Maas has won individual titles at the Xavier and Ohio Invitationals. Under their leadership and with the depth provided by sophomore Kendra Churchill and seniors Lauren Birnie (Worthington) and Ali Green (Lancaster), the team will look to fare better than the predicted eighth place finish. The five women with freshmen Rachel Beakas (Waterville) and Julia Weisenborn (Bowling Green) have finished under 20 minutes at all 5K races and have made strong showings as a team this year at the Notre Dame Invitational and the All-Ohio Championships. The 60th edition of the MAC Cross Country Championships gets underway Saturday at the North Forty (Anderson Field) in DeKalb, Ill. The women's 5K event will kick-off at 11 a.m. (cst) and will be followed by the men's 8K race at noon. |
