WILMINGTON, Ohio – Among a diverse and competitive field, the Wittenberg cross country teams turned in strong team finishes at the Wilmington Fall Classic Friday evening. The women finished 17th in a field of 33 while the men were 14th among 34 teams.
Even while fighting a cold, junior Molly King (Springfield, Ohio/Northeastern) managed to post a collegiate best time of 19:07.33 and finish in 18th place among attached individuals and 20th overall. Her performance, paired with several additional strong finishes, gave head coach Craig Penney every indication the Tigers are improving heading into the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) championship meet.
"At this point we're starting to get focused on the conference meet," Penney said. "The freshman are making an impact, and I thought we raced hard today. We made a lot of positive strides towards improvement."
The men are in a similar situation, as both teams prepare for the NCAC championship meet scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 27, at the College of Wooster.
"The guys have a lot of work to do over the next two weeks, but they're making a strong run to improve," Penney said. "They're getting tougher mentally, becoming a more complete team and developing a competitive mindset."
Junior Jacob Kuntz (Versailles, Ky./Woodford) led the men's effort in a 32nd place finish among 380 competitors overall and 28th among attached competitors, nearly finishing under 26 minutes at 26:04.77.
Not far behind was senior Trevor Grandy (Dublin, Ohio/Coffman) in 56th overall on a time of 26:27.65. Rounding out the Tigers' top four were junior Wade Westbrook (Columbus, Ohio/Whetstone) in 111th at 27:20.64 and sophomore Austin Butler (Carroll, Ohio/Bloom-Carroll) in 130th at 27:35.87.
Junior Shannon Kelleher (Hilliard, Ohio/Darby) followed King in the women's race in 105th place overall in a field of 340, finishing in a time of 20:42.75.
Close behind, and showing improvement according to Penney, was junior Maggie McIlvain (East Liverpool, Ohio/East Liverpool) in 114th at 20:50.42, while freshman Sarah Webb (Twinsburg, Ohio/Twinsburg) cruised to a 114th place finish on a time of 20:52.30.
The Tigers will rest for the night but head right back out for the Inter-Regional Rumble hosted by Oberlin College tomorrow, Saturday, Oct. 13 in northeastern Ohio.