A final tune-up before the stretch run of the 2002 men's and women's cross country season was run last weekend at Ohio Northern University, where the Tigers got a lot of strong individual performances.

In leading the team to a seventh place finish, senior Abi Gerstle (Kettering, Ohio/Fairmont) won the meet, covering the six kilometers in a course-record and personal-best time of 22:41. Gerstle, who was named NCAC Athlete of the Week for a second time in 2002 as a result of her victory at ONU, appears to be in great shape to defend her 2001 NCAC championship and make a third consecutive run to the NCAA Division III championship meet, scheduled for Nov. 23 in Northfield, Minn. The regional meet, which is Nov. 16, will be run at Ohio Northern's course.

While the rest of the Tiger runners didn't have first-place ribbons to show for their efforts, several did turn in personal-best performances, including: freshmen Tracy Butler (Ft. Wayne, Ind./Homestead), Anna Finkelstein (Whitehall, Mich./Reeths-Puffer) and Sarah Gearhart (Enon, Ohio/Greenon), sophomore Lindsay Veit (West Chester, Ohio/Lakota East), Melissa Moser (Galion, Ohio/Galion) and Hillary Brotzman (Madison, Ohio/The Andrews School), and juniors Becky Barnes (Williamsport, Ohio/Westfall) and Nikki Norcia (Brunswick, Ohio/Brunswick).

For the men, Nick Dewald (Mansfield, Ohio/Senior) was the top finisher in 46th place with a season-best time of 27:32 for the eight-kilometer course. Men with personal bests were freshmen Chris Petrik (Highland Heights, Ohio/Mayfield), Caleb Arnold (Enon, Ohio/Greenon), Adam Majot (Coudersport, Pa./Senior) and Chris Knapp (Stow, Ohio/Stow-Munroe Falls), sophomore Chad Kresser (Findlay, Ohio/Findlay), juniors Jeff Domingus (London, Ohio/London) and Mike Henderson (Berea, Ohio/Berea) and senior Nate Henderson (Kettering, Ohio/Dayton Carroll).

Other with season-best times were juniors Alan Gustafson (Newark, Ohio/Newark) and Andrew Hobson (Columbus, Ohio/Upper Arlington).