On a wet, muddy and dark Saturday morning the men’s and women’s cross country teams hosted the Otterbein Invitational with a few alterations.
Due to the rain from Friday night and early Saturday morning the original scheduled course had to be changed due to flooding at the starting line.
This forced both the men’s and women’s runners to start at the Westerville Community Center and run across Cleveland Avenue to the path around the soccer fields on the other side of the street.
The path, which was paved concrete, forced each runner to run in the grass along the path which ran in one giant loop.
After running the required number of loops the runners would cross Cleveland Avenue and finish back at the starting line.
The men’s team, placing third out of 17 teams at the invitational, was led by senior Andrew Mantell who finished in sixth place with a time of 26:38.0.
Following closely behind Mantell were junior Joey Montoya (26:54.3) and sophomore Phillip Cochran (26:57.5), who both finished 11th and 13th respectively.
Other runners of note include sophomore Richard Gopel (27:45.6), sophomore Connor Musial (28:31.6) and freshman Cameron Posner (28:52.2).
The women’s team, led by freshman Julissa Poullet who finished fourth with a time of 23:49.3, placed in fifth out of 17 teams in the second race of the Otterbein Invitational.
This would be Poullet’s second top five finish of the season after taking first in Hanover, Ind. two weeks ago.
Other runners of note for the women’s team included senior Kaila Cramer (24:31.7) and sophomore Victoria Konkle (25:05.7), both of whom finished in the top 25, followed by freshman Meredith Wesco (25:26.9) and freshman Alex Winter (25:37.4).
