By Bernin Noll

DELAWARE, OH - The Bluffton College men's and women's cross country teams had the best finish in the history of the programs at the All-Ohio Cross Country Championship Meet this past Friday, October 11th. The men ended up 33rd out of 39 teams in the entire meet and 16th out of 21 Division III teams that participated. Meanwhile, the women took 31st out of 39 overall and 15th out of 21 Division III teams running the race. 

The All-Ohio meet is a race held to symbolize the rich tradition of talent that Ohio has in its college running programs. Every school in the state is invited and only a few do not show up. It truly is a race that the athletes look forward to. This year's race posted a challenging course to the athletes in temperatures that were less than favorable.

As 2:00pm rolled around, there was a sense that something large was about to happen, and when the gun went off, 263 men began the 8,000m journey to the finish line. This week it was sophomore Andy Schiefer who led the Beavers to a good finish. Schiefer used the large number of runners to stay consistent and surge when needed to finish in 166th place overall (64th in D III) in a time of 29:49. Second for the Beavers was sophomore Roy Kaplan who finished 185th overall (75th in D III) with a time of 30:21. Also scoring for Bluffton's men were Steve Borga, 196th overall (84th D III), 30:33 - Josh Tolley, 221st overall (106th D III), 31:48 - and Patrick Cooley, 222nd overall (107th D III), 31:51. Also running for the Beavers was Andrew Smith who finished a strong race in 231st overall (115th D III) with a 32:28. Dan Rosebrock started the race for the Beavers but ended up pulling out at coach's discretion in the 2nd mile with a leg cramp. 

In the open race for the men, Stephen Rabe ran a tough race all by himself to finish 152nd out of 166 runners covering the course in 36:55.

Before the women's race the sense came back and when the race started 267 runners barreled through a field to find their way to the first turn. At the mile mark, sophomore MaryAnna Morgan led for Bluffton College and she continued to hold that lead all the way to the finish. Morgan came across the finish line for the 5,000m race in a time of 21:30, twelve seconds better than her previous year's time, and in 156th place (63rd in D III). Finishing two seconds behind Morgan was freshman teammate Jennifer Creamer who clearly had one of her strongest performances of the year. Creamer ran a 31:32 to place 158th overall (64th in D III). Also with a noteworthy performance was freshman Carrie Hudecek who ran a 21:37 good for 167th overall (69th in D III). Scoring was rounded out by Rachael Szydlowski, 191st overall (84th D III), 22:03 - and Stephanie Welch (in her debut from injury), 232nd overall (115th D III), 23:43.

Also running for the Beavers was Rachel Noirot, 235th overall (118th D III), 23:57 - and Alicia Stanko, 254th overall (129th in D III), 25:47. 

"Man, this was a challenging course today," said head coach Derek Stanley. "Rosebrock going down in the men's race was an unexpected hit that our team took and if you couple it with the fact that I held out two of my top five women, we really could have done a lot better here today." Stanley added, "these kids must be more aggressive in the last half of the race, they put themselves in good position, they just have to make sure they finish it off now."

The Beavers run next at the Fall Classic hosted on the campus of Wilmington College this Friday, October 18th starting at 4:30pm.