DELAWARE, Ohio – The Wittenberg cross country teams jumped head first into the Ohio Wesleyan Invitational on Saturday, and the men surfaced with a solid sixth-place finish among 12 teams while the women finished ninth out of 11.

Leading  the Tiger men was freshman Jon Osman (Troy, Ohio/Troy), who in his first collegiate 8K race crossed the finish line in a time of 26:36.0 in 15th-place. Osman repeats as the top Wittenberg finisher after winning the intercollegiate division of the Meijer Flyer 5K Invitational hosted by the University of Dayton last week.

Following Osman through the gate was senior Jacob Kuntz (Versailles, Ky./Woodford) on a time of 27:08.4 in 24th-place. Freshman Nick Molnar (Mansfield, Ohio/Lexington) was next in 33rd with a time of 27:34.3, followed by senior Wade Westbrook (Columbus, Ohio/Whetstone) in 39th and junior Andrew Ziminski (New Albany, Ohio/New Albany) in 43rd.

For the women it was also a freshman leading the way, as Erin Hord (Madison, Ohio/Madison) covered the 6K course in 20:48.2 to finish 41st. Flipping last week's finishing order at Dayton, Hord finished just ahead of senior Shannon Kelleher (Hilliard, Ohio/Darby), who was 45th on a time of 20:58.8.

The Tigers also got a top-50 finish from senior Maggie McIlvain (East Liverpool, Ohio/East Liverpool) in 49th on a time of 21:10.3, and junior Deanna Iwanyckyj (Water Mill, N.Y./Southampton) finished 73rd ahead of freshman Kalie McDorman (Springfield, Ohio/Kenton Ridge) in 76th.

The Tigers now gear up for the Pre-NCAC Invitational hosted by Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa., on Saturday, Sept. 14.

John Strawn '07