The Oberlin men’s and women’s cross country squads traveled to the NCAA Regional Championships in Wilmington, Ohio Nov. 12.

The Yeomen took 14th while the Yeowomen came in sixth. Both finishes were improvements upon last year’s performances. Junior Travis Grout earned an All-Regional honor for the men’s squad, while sophomores Alison Doniger and Marie Barnett earned All-Regional honors on the women’s side.

Doniger led the Yeowomen, finishing the six-mile course with a time of 21:29. This time landed her in eighth place and qualified her for the NCAA national championships that will be held on Nov. 21.

Reflecting on her personal performance, Doniger said, “I’m very happy with my own race. I went into it not sure if I was capable of qualifying for nationals. After I was done, I had to wait about 20 minutes to find out if I had made it or not. It was so nerve-wracking.”

Barnett finished 23rd and first-year Flannery Cerbin rounded out the competition with a 41st place finish. Reflecting on the Yeowomen’s performance, Cerbin said, “Going into the regional meet the ladies’ team knew we had a shot at making nationals. We knew that this race was going to test our conditioning as well as level of determination. Even though as a team we didn’t advance to nationals the seven ladies raced with their hearts. We are all very happy for Alison and are excited to watch her race next weekend. And with a little improvement, next year there will be an Oberlin team on the starting line at nationals.”

Like Cerbin, Doniger sees great potential for improvement next year.

“We did pretty well on the whole. Even though we didn’t place like we wanted to as a team, most of us had great races. We should be able to come back next year and make the national meet. We are a young team, and most of the teams that beat us will be losing many key seniors. This has great implications for next year.”

The Yeomen improved from a 20th-place finish last year to a 14th- place finish this year. The best performance was by Grout, who finished 23rd with a final time of 25:38.

Considering the Yeomen’s performance, Grout said, “For the first time all season, all of us on the guys’ team got it together at the same time. Everyone, as far as I know, ran an excellent race — 14th place is a solid finish for us. Conor Doss showed himself yet again to be peerlessly hardcore, throwing everything he had into the race to the extent of almost physically collapsing at the finish line.”

Grout also sees great potential in both teams, saying, “Both teams continue to improve by leaps and bounds, as both teams will return the bulk of their team and — with a better record and progressively more experience — the coaching staff will be able to get more students interested in Oberlin varsity running.”

The Varsity Cross Country teams had an impressive season, wrapped up with an impressive performance at the Regional Championship, and there is great enthusiasm about next season.