The Wittenberg men's and women's cross country teams ran hard, but they didn't finish as well as Head Coach Steve Shutt had hoped last week at the North Coast Athletic Conference championship meet. Denison, which won the women's title, hosted the meet as the Tigers placed eighth in the women's competition and ninth in the men's competition, both for a second straight year.
The Tigers will wrap up the 2005 season at the NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional Championship meet Nov. 12 at Wilmington. Wittenberg's runners would have to drop substantial amounts of time to advance to the national meet, which is scheduled for the following weekend at Ohio Wesleyan.
The Tiger women finished with 215 team points, well behind seventh place Wooster. Freshmen Erin Hedrick (Springfield, Ohio/Shawnee) and Abby McCutcheon (Lancaster, Ohio/Lancaster) led the way for the Tigers, which put all five scoring runners in the top 50. Hedrick finished 34th in a time of 25:52, while McCutcheon was 41st in 26:09.
The Tiger men finished with 255 team points, also well behind seventh place Wooster. Two runners placed in the top 50 as sophomore Mike Echols (Springfield, Ohio/North) placed 40th in 28:31 and senior Chris Petrik (Highland Heights, Ohio/Mayfield Heights) crossed the finish line in 29:08, good for 50th place.