Oakland harriers close out season at NCAA Great Lakes Regional
ROCHESTER – Lia Jones and Zack Jones both finished among the top 50 runners, as the Oakland University men’s and women’s cross country finished out the season at the NCAA Division I Great Lakes Regional Championship Saturday afternoon at the Katke-Cousins Golf Course.
The men scored 424 points to finish 16th, which ties their best performance. The women scored 357 to place 14th, the first time they have cracked the top 15 in school history.
On the men’s side (10K), No. 5 Wisconsin placed five runners among the top 10 to score 32 points, winning by 44 points over No. 12 Indiana. Both squads automatically qualify for the NCAA Championship. For the Badgers, Landon Peacock, Mohammed Ahmed and Maverick Darling repeated as all-region honorees and were joined by Reed Connor, Elliot Krause and Phil Thomas.
Rounding out the top five were No. 30 Notre Dame (3rd – 117 pts.), No. 37 Ohio State (4th – 131) and No. 34 Michigan State (5th – 148). Eric Finan of Cincinnati ran 30:25.40 to win by three seconds over Connor. The individual qualifiers for nationals are Finan, Craig Forys of Michigan, Dan Jackson of Notre Dame and Chris Lemon of Dayton.
“It was a good performance for us,” said head coach Paul Rice. “We’ve been 16th several times at the regional meet. It was nice to see Zack (Jones) and Ross (Solanskey) to finish their careers with a strong race.”
Jones ran 31:33.60 to place 48th as the top runner for the Golden Grizzlies. Rounding out the top five was Brandon Griffin (32:05.50 – 73rd), Pat Cassady (32:07.60 – 77th), Steve Marcinkowski (32:47.40 – 111th) and Tony Schafer (32:50.80 – 115th).
On the women’s side (6K), No. 16 Michigan State placed three among the top 11 to score 80 points and win by 16 points over No. 18 Michigan. Both teams automatically qualify for nationals. Rounding out the top five were No. 30 Toledo (3rd – 130 pts.), No. 35 Ohio State (4th – 139 pts.) and No. 31 Indiana (5th – 167 pts.).
Individually, Emily McLeod of Michigan State ran 20:18.80 to repeat as the regional champion. The individual qualifiers for nationals are Emily Sisson of Wisconsin, Ari Fisher of Toledo, Caitlin Comfort of Wisconsin and Rachel Patterson of Miami (Ohio).
“14th is something we can be really proud of,” said coach Rice. ‘We’ve never been in the top 15 before so it is a great accomplishment. We think we have a better race in us but we can’t be too disappointment. This has been an amazing season and the ladies have really earned all of the success we have had.”
Lia Jones was the top Oakland runner with a time of 21:48.50, good for 46th place. Rounding out the top five was Brittni Hutton (21:58.30 – 57th), Kelsey Carmean (22:05.80 – 62nd), Erica D’Angelo (22:24.70 – 83rd) and Sara Lieblein (22:54.20 – 109th).
Category: Oakland University
