The Oberlin Review
<< Front page Sports October 13, 2007

Women Finish Fourth, Men Tenth at All-Ohio

After four years at the helm, Head Coach Ray Appenheimer has set high standards for his cross country team’s performances. While he felt last Friday’s All-Ohio Championship meet at Ohio Wesleyan University did not go according to plan, Oberlin still had a decent showing.

“Given the way the team has trained thus far in the year, I thought that the women would place second overall and the men seventh. We placed fourth and tenth respectively,” Appenheimer said.

The meet, which was held in Delaware, OH, included teams from all three athletic divisions. The Yeomen finished right in the middle of the Division III pack, placing tenth out of 20 teams. The women had an even more impressive finish, coming in fourth out of 22 D-III teams. Additionally, the Yeomen and Yeowomen were 23rd of 39 and 15th of 44 teams overall, respectively.

Despite falling a little short of the goal their coach had set, the Oberlin women finished in front of all the teams in their conference that were represented at the meet, with the exception of Ohio Wesleyan University. The men held off two conference competitors, Wooster and Wittenberg. 

As far as individual finishes go, junior Ryan King led the men with a time of 28:16, which was good enough for 29th place among Division III runners. For the women, first-year Joanna Johnson finished an impressive fourth place in her division with a time of 19:57. Not only did Johnson finish first among runners on the Oberlin team; her fourth place was the highest finish in the North Coast Athletic Conference. Additionally, Johnson was recognized for her efforts by more than just the Oberlin community: she was named Player of the Week by the NCAC.

Other top finishers for the women included senior Marie Barnett (20:38), junior Nicky Ouellet (20:42), senior Alison Doniger (21:31), first-year Julia Beebe (21:53), senior Alexandra Petek (22:10) and first-year Erica Grohol (22:18). On the men’s side, King was followed by first-years Albert Davila (28:39) and  Justin Warner (28:59); juniors Collin Anderson (29:01), Everett Schlawin (29:31) and Conor Doss (29:44) and senior Andrew Pike (30:28).

“It was pretty lackluster across the board,” said Doniger, referring to the team’s performance. However, she expressed confidence in its ability to rebound from a disappointing meet: “I know we are better than [OWU] and we will beat them in the conference race. Maybe this is just the mental slap in the face we need to get ourselves in gear.”

Coach Appenheimer remained upbeat despite the slight setback, saying, “I know the character of this team. This is a team full of goal-oriented, successful people. They’re winners and that’s what’s going to define us as we enter the championship phase of the year.”

The Yeomen and Yeowomen compete next at Calvin College this Saturday at 11 a.m.


 
 
   

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