OAC Preview

Photo Credit: Baldwin Wallace Athletics

Conferences across the country will gather this weekend for athletes to compete for trophies, all-conference honors, PRs, and maybe even a last chance to move up in the regional and national rankings. 

For some, this weekend will mark the last college cross country meet athletes ever run, the end of a ten-year saga that started on two-mile courses in oversized gym shorts with Capri-Sun pouches and Rice Krispie treats at the end. For others, this weekend might be the first time stepping up to the line in a major college championship race, nerves fluttering around in bellies as athletes anxiously anticipate the course laid out ahead of them. And for others still, this week is the start of a month-long journey to the ultimate event in NCAA athletics: the national championship meet. 

And just like that, the cross country postseason has landed. 

The Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC), while boasting the occasional power team or standout individual (perhaps the most recent of which is Otterbein’s Claire Lamb, who was national runner-up in the 2019 NCAA DIII XC Championship meet) has managed to make a significant push onto the national cross country scene this year with two men’s teams making appearances in last week’s D3GD top 10 rankings. Headlining the rankings are the men from John Carroll, who currently sit 6th after a consistently dominant year and 19th-place team finish at the NCAA meet in 2019.

JCU is led by All-American Alex Phillip, who will likely be in contention for the national title in November, quickly becoming another significant standout from the OAC.

Photo Credit: Kyle Basista

Phillip made his last race at Oberlin look like a tempo run when he kicked from 12 places behind to overtake Mount Union’s Jeff Joseph by 8 seconds. Having proven that Joseph is no threat, all eyes have shifted instead toward the OAC showdown many have been anticipating since pre-nationals: Phillip vs. Wilmington’s Simon Heys, who took the victory in Louisville in Phillip’s absence. Phillip beat Heys head-to-head at All-Ohio by a sizable 49 seconds, but conditions were hot, and Heys ran over a minute and a half faster two weeks later. 

Listen to D3GD’s post-pre-nats interview with Heys.

Heys comes fresh off of a huge solo victory last week at home at the Jenna Strong Fall Classic, which conveniently doubled as a course preview, as Wilmington will host this year’s OAC championship. There’s nothing the home crowd at Wilmington would love to see more than a victory for their favorite local barista (just ask Molly Seidel), so Heys likely enters this race with some big expectations and an army behind him. Knowing such could be all the extra edge he needs to hang close to Phillip until the very end. 

The other OAC team represented in the D3GD top-10 national rankings are the men from Otterbein, who jumped up to 10th following their victory over previously ranked Wash-U and nearly missing the victory over North Central at Augustana last weekend. They reconvene with #6 John Carroll after last facing off head-to-head at the All-Ohio Championships in mid-September. Of the 15 DIII teams that competed, JCU was first with 31 points, and Otterbein finished 22 points behind them in second. 

Although the OAC meet will be far less crowded than All-Ohio, allowing both teams to race more directly, Otterbein will have to have a huge day to overtake JCU, whose pack time for scorers 2 through 5 last weekend at Oberlin was an astonishing three seconds. The Cardinals are led by 1500 All-American Cal Yackin and Bill Daily, who both finished in the top 20 at Augustana last week, setting new 8k PRs under 25 minutes.

Otterbein is no stranger to an upset, too. Recall that WashU’s men were originally ranked 6th nationally in the first round of D3GD rankings in early October. If Otterbein can take down one #6 team, what’s one more? Assuming the team from central Ohio can continue their upward trend, they should put up a good fight against John Carroll. Regardless of outcome, the national-caliber level of competition that will take place between both teams this weekend fares well for each of them as they head into the Great Lakes Regional meet in three weeks.

Also in the mix for a top-3 finish are the teams from Mount Union, Ohio Northern, and Wilmington. The pre-season coaches’ poll, detailed below, has Mount Union edging out Ohio Northern, and Wilmington taking fifth, which only slightly differs from the more up-to-date LACCTiC simulation, which has Wilmington finishing ahead of Ohio Northern and behind Mount Union. 

Mount Union has recently shown some separation from ONU, having beat them by five places at Oberlin, and Wilmington’s men head into the weekend after a Friday-night victory at their home meet, the conference course now fresh in their minds. 

The course apparently runs through campus and has a portion that borders a creek. With rain in the forecast every day this week including race day, the possibility of flooding could wreak havoc on course conditions. The difference between third and fifth in the men’s race could simply come down to level of toughness in less-than-ideal conditions. 

Of the top five schools in the conference, the only team that lacks a significant frontrunner is Ohio Northern. They are the only school to not have an athlete place within the top 10 in the men’s varsity races at major invitationals. While most can expect JCU’s Phillip, Ian Pierson, Jamie Dailey, Andrew Miner, and Jared Arnold, as well as Otterbein’s Yackin and Daily, Wilmington’s Heys, and Mount’s Joseph and Vincent Giumenti to comprise this weekend’s front pack, the absence of an ONU jersey in the All-Conference positions could be a problem.

To make matters more interesting, ONU has had a different first scorer at every large invitational, indicating that this is a team that must rely on their depth in the absence of a consistent #1. Their secret weapon appears to be their numbers, as they have 45 men listed on their roster, 16 more than the next largest roster belonging to Mount Union. As every athlete will compete in the same race this weekend, depth could be the solution to an absent frontrunner if the athletes who border on scoring can push each other closer to the front.

On the women’s side:

The coaches’ poll has selected John Carroll to win, meaning a sweep on the day for both teams. Their women’s team is currently led by Erica Esper, who has covered 6,000 meters in 22 minutes and 14 seconds so far this year. On the track, Esper specializes in the longer distances, but has also posted an 800 time of 2:23, making a lethal combination of strength and speed when it comes to the cross country course. 

Behind Esper is two-time cross country national qualifier Cameron Bujaucius, who just opened up her season last weekend at Oberlin, finishing as the team’s fourth scorer in 42nd place overall. Last time Bujaucius raced at Oberlin in 2019, she finished 5th behind the likes of Trine’s Evie Bultemeyer, Loras’s Kassie Rosenbum, and Baldwin Wallace’s Kelly Brennan, all of whom are cross country All-Americans and two of whom finished in the top 8 to earn their All-America honors. 

Despite the late start to her season, Bujaucius is clearly a gamer when it comes down to it. She was runner up at this meet in 2019 to teammate Sydney Jenko. With a few more weeks of training under her belt and a little conference championship adrenaline, don’t count her out of the top 5 on Saturday.

The athlete to really watch in this race, however, is Otterbein’s Sydney Smith, who has been dropping time each week to lead her team through the season. No stranger to the big leagues, Smith is a two-time cross country national qualifier and OAC champion in both the 5k and the 3k distances on the track. Expect her to go for the win with an early lead at the gun. 

Also in the mix up front is Baldwin Wallace’s Alyssa Laughner and Ohio Northern’s Tessa Pitcovich, who finished 5th and 6th, respectively, at Oberlin, crossing the finish line within just 8 seconds of each other. Pitcovich hasn’t beaten Laughner head-to-head since their freshman year, but with the Ohio Northern women ranked second in the pre-season coaches’ polls just ahead of Baldwin Wallace, she has a much larger purpose at play. Taking a point or two off of her team score by beating Laughner could be the difference between a second place finish and a third place finish. However, as most know, the race outcome is often determined by the back half of scorers, who tack up more points than the front. 

Though Baldwin Wallace’s Hope Murphy is likely to key off teammate Laughner to pull her toward a first-team all-conference finish, the yellow jackets fall off hard after that. At Oberlin, there were 113 places between Murphy and third scorer Cassandra Kolonchuck. At Paul Short, over 200 athletes separated second and third. Even with two strong competitors up front, BW may struggle to stay in the top 5 without the depth that other teams have shown this year. 

Two such teams are the teams from Mount Union and Otterbein, both of whom have beaten Ohio Northern head-to-head this year and both of whom will likely look to capture second. Mount Union’s women, led by Brittany McCauley, beat Ohio Northern head-to-head twice so far this season, once at pre-nationals and once at Oberlin, and Otterbein bested the polar bears by two places earlier this year at All-Ohio.

According to results, however, ONU was down a top runner both times--at All-Ohio it was the sophomore with an 18:42 5k PR, Megan Vapenik, and at Oberlin it was senior Taylor Ellerbrock, who took 27th at the pre-national meet a week prior, finishing one spot ahead of McCauley. Assuming Northern runs a full roster this weekend, the hunt for second is sure to be a close race.

Race guns will go off at 1 and 2pm EST for the men’s and women’s race, respectively. If you find yourself passing through southwest Ohio on Saturday afternoon or perhaps just in the mood to watch some high-caliber cross country athletes trudge through miles of mud, grab an umbrella and a hot cup of joe from Simon Heys’s family coffee shop, Kava Haus, and head to the course. Peering through the hood of your finely-misted rain coat, you just might see history in the making.