Osman's Fourth-Place Finish Leads Tigers At Pre-Regional Meet

Jon Osman finished fourth at the NCAA Pre-Regional at Rose Hulman. File Photo | Nick Falzerano
Jon Osman finished fourth at the NCAA Pre-Regional at Rose Hulman. File Photo | Nick Falzerano

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - The Wittenberg Tigers got a close-up look at Rose-Hulman's LaVern Gibson Course that will host the 2015 NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional Championship in November, with both the men's and women's teams placing sixth in an eight-team field.

Mount Union set the pace for the 8k men's course, finishing the race with a team-average time of 26:57. Host school Rose-Hulman wasn't far off, coming in less than 30 seconds later with a team over of 27:12.

Wittenberg was paced by junior Jon Osman (Troy,Ohio/Troy), who finished with a personal-best time of 26:54 helped the Tigers boost their team average time to 28:14. Osman placed fourth in the final individual standings.

Three Tigers finished within 10 seconds of each other in support of Osman's outstanding effort. Starting the trend and still four seconds ahead of the team average was freshman Alex Quillin (New Albany, Ohio/New Albany) with a time of 28:10 to finish 26th. Next up was senior Courtland Johnson (Versailles, Ky./Woodford County) in 32nd place in a time of 28:20. Also scoring for Wittenberg were freshman Charles Rodeheffer (Delaware, Ohio/Olentangy) in 28:32 to finish 35th and junior Ethan Raines (Maineville, Ohio/Kings) in 29:18 to finish 44th.

The Tigers will run next on Friday, Oct. 2, in the annual All-Ohio Invitational at Cedarville's Elvin R. King Cross Country Course.

Written By: AJ Meyer '15