September 30, 2009 – Athletics

Sarah Shinn ’10 finishes at the 2007 All-Ohio cross country championship.

Photo by Sara Tincher

Ohio Wesleyan to Host All-Ohio Cross Country Championships
Bishops to compete in nation’s third-largest meet

The turn of the calendar into October brings about the All-Ohio Intercollegiate Cross Country Championship, not only Ohio Wesleyan’s biggest sporting event of the year but one of the City of Delaware’s biggest events.

This year's edition, the 55th running of the meet, is set for Friday at Ohio Wesleyan's home course on the grounds of the Methodist Theological School and Delaware Golf Club south of Delaware. With over 46 colleges attending and over 1200 runners competing, this meet is the third-largest in the nation, according to Kris Boey, men’s and women’s cross country coach.

While Ohio Wesleyan is an NCAA Division III school, there is no shortage of Division I and II schools at this meet, making the competition fresh and more intense than many cross country meets.

The size of the meet makes hosting it no easy task, but the reason this meet is so effective is that it has been held here in Delaware every year since 1986, making the course and crew naturally trustworthy. “People are used to us and the course and they always say we run a good meet,” says Boey with satisfaction.

To organize this meet and keep it running, a small army is needed—and that’s exactly what the meet has. Student-athletes, including members of the track, softball, and women’s lacrosse teams, assist the coaches and officials in making this meet happen. In addition to them, there are members of the Methodist Theological School and Delaware Golf Club assisting as well. To make things even more efficient, a chip is given to each runner for them to tie to their shoe and a backup chip is in the number given to them. This way, it will be a speedy process in getting the times up and going so the scores can be tallied quickly.

While the All-Ohio Championship is pretty important to the Bishops, Boey makes it clear that this meet takes a back seat to the North Coast Athletic Conference and NCAA Division III regional meets.

To prepare for the hilly course, additional hill workouts were added but other than that, nothing was changed from the Bishops’ usual training schedule, which is designed to have the team at its peak for the NCAC championship meet.

Nonetheless, Boey has little doubt that the Bishops will do well, stating “We have good groups of athletes, athletes that are self-motivated.” The goal for the OWU team is to score a place in the top three for Division III and stay in the top half in the overall field.

– Danielle Rubinstein-Towler ’13