KETTERING, Ohio - The Wittenberg men's and women's cross country teams turned in a strong performance in the first meet of the 2012 season, running well at the University of Dayton's Meijer Flyer Invitational at Indian Riffle Park.
Competing against neighboring NCAA Division II rivals Cedarville and Urbana in the Intercollegiate competition, the Tiger men edged Cedarville by one point for first place and the Tiger women finished second behind Cedarville. Miami University, Dayton, Ohio State, Cincinnati, Wright State and Cleveland State participated in the NCAA Division I competition.
Junior Jacob Kuntz (Versailles, Ky./Woodford) was Wittenberg's top finisher, winning the Intercollegiate race with a time of 16:37. He was followed by junior Wade Westbrook (Columbus, Ohio/Whetstone) in a time of 16:48, while senior Trevor Grandy (Dublin, Ohio/Coffman) also earned a top-five finish with a time of 16:59, good for fourth place.
Rounding out the Wittenberg point-scorers were sophomore Adam Kapuscinski (Cincinnati, Ohio/Sycamore) in ninth and sophomore Andrew Ziminski (New Albany, Ohio/New Albany) in 13th.
On the women's side, Cedarville took six of the top seven spots to easily win the Intercollegiate race. The only runner to break the Yellow Jacket run was Tiger junior Molly King (Springfield, Ohio/Northeastern), who placed fourth in a time of 20:01.
She was followed for Wittenberg by junior Maggie McIlvain (East Liverpool, Ohio/East Liverpool) in eighth place, freshman Sarah Webb (Twinsburg, Ohio/Twinsburg) in ninth, senior Chelsey Williams (Fort Wayne, Ind./Canterbury) in 11th and senior Alyssa Hamilton (Parker, Colo./St. Mary's) in 12th.