Freshman Julissa Poullet earned her first individual title as an Otterbein cross country runner last Saturday as she led the women’s team to a first place victory in the Kiwanis Invitational at Hanover University.
“Julissa ran a strong race to lead the way and several of our freshman girls had solid debut races,” head coach Scott Alpeter said. “We thought that our women might have a chance to win this meet and most of them ran very well.”
There were three other runners alongside Poullet that finished in the top ten including freshman Kiersten Lathrop, senior Kaila Cramer and sophomore Victoria Konkle.
While the women’s team garnered most of the attention on Saturday, the men’s team also had some success placing third at Hanover.
“Our men had a good opening race at Hanover,” Alpeter said. “We beat some nationally ranked teams and had some good races.”
Junior Joey Montoya led the team placing 19th, with sophomore Phillip Cochran and senior Amir Askari finishing right behind in 21st and 22nd, respectively.
Other runners of note include senior Andrew Mantell, who finished 24th, and sophomore Connor Musial finishing 58th.
Both the men’s and the women’s cross country teams have the week off, which will give them two weeks to prepare for the Otterbein Invitational Sept. 21.
“We will have several difficult workouts over the next two weeks as we prepare for our home invitational,” Alpeter said. He added that he hopes these two weeks will continue to lay the groundwork for their most important races in November.
The Otterbein Invitational begins at 10:45 a.m. with the men’s teams followed by the women’s at 11:30 a.m.
