The Tigers may not have taken part in any competition over the weekend, but they remained busy. Just a few short days remain before the NCAA Great Lakes Regional meet at Kalamazoo College.

For most of the hundreds of runners taking part in the men's and women's competitions, the regional meet will be one last hurrah in the 2001 season. The Tigers, in particular juniorAbi Gerstle (Kettering, Ohio/Fairmont) and senior Sarah Weide (Ft. Wayne, Ind./Homestead), have high hopes of making a strong impression at the meet and possibly moving on to the NCAA Division III National Championship meet on Nov. 17 at Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill.

Gerstle is trying to make the national meet for the second straight year after she became the first Tiger runner to win an individual NCAC title and Runner of the Year honors. Gerstle, who was the first Wittenberg runner to make the NCAA meet a year ago, crossed the finish line at the Oct. 27 NCAC meet in 19:09.45, more than seven seconds faster than anyone else in the field. 

Weide turned in a career-best seventh in a time of 19:41 at the NCAC meet. That finish was good for first-team All-NCAC honors, the first time Weide has earned such an award in cross country after taking home second-team honors the last two years.

On the men's side, senior Dave Hyde (Naperville, Ill./Central) leads a team that must lower its times significantly to qualify for the national meet. The tri-captain has paced the Tigers in every meet this season.