David Wallingford
The Wittenberg men's and women's cross country teams finished strong at the Earlham Invitational last weekend, taking sixth and of 11 and eighth of 10 respectively. The competition was very strong in the meet, including several of the North Coast Athletic Conference teams the Tigers will be facing against this week at the All-Ohio Invitational at Ohio Wesleyan and at the conference championship meet at Allegheny on Oct. 30.
The Tiger men scorers were led for the third straight meet by Mike Echols (Springfield, Ohio/North), who finished 15th in the eight-kilometer race with a time of 28:11. He was followed by freshman David Wallingford (Bellevue, Ohio/Bellevue) in 34th in 29:04, junior Chris Petrik (Highland Heights, Ohio/Mayfield) in 37th in 29:21, freshman Mike Wismer (Avon, Ohio/Avon) in 42nd in 29:34.00 and freshman Shawn Hils (Hiram, Ohio/Crestwood) in 50th in 30:03. In addition, freshman Jon Dewald (Mansfield, Ohio/Senior) wound up 51st in 30:06.
The Tiger women were paced for the second straight meet by freshman Mary Beth Lintz (Englewood, Ohio/Northmont), who finished 31st in the five-kilometer race in 21:19. She was followed by freshman Alissa Goble (Sunfield, Mich./Lakewood) in 44th in 22:20, sophomore Sarah Yehle (West Lafayette, Ind./West Lafayette) in 45th in 22:04, sophomore Jessica McClish (Shelby, Ohio/Shelby) in 53rd in 22:28 and junior Megan O'Neil (Carroll, Ohio/Bloom-Carroll) in 56th in 22:41. In addition, sophomore Meredith Deitsch (Edgerton, Ohio/Edgerton) just missed scoring for the team with a 57th place finish in 22:42.