For Oberlin's cross country teams, the season is still young.
That's a good thing, because last Saturday's performances - particularly for the men's team - were disappointing.
Both squads finished around the middle of the pack at the Wooster Invitational. The women, led by senior Shannon Fox's second-place finish, were sixth out of the 10 teams in the meet. The men's team finished seventh out of 11 teams.
Fox, last year's conference champion, sat out the team's previous meet with a groin injury.
"She ran well considering she hadn't been training for about two weeks," coach Tom Mulligan said.
The next finisher for the team was first-year Rebecca Grossman, who finished 10th overall.
Saturday's meet was the biggest test of September for the cross country teams.
"It gave us an opportunity to compare how we are with other teams at this point of the season," Mulligan said.
Mulligan said that by season's end, the women should be beating Denison and Case Western Reserve University, who finished third and fourth Saturday.
While Fox is back on the course for the Yeowomen, a pair of runners - sophomore China Weber and first-year Lisa Mickley - missed Saturday's meet with injuries.
Both have been in rehab this week and could be available Saturday for a meet at Denison.
The men were paced by Senior Alex Dawe's seventh-place performance and finished seventh out of 11 teams.
Dawe spent a year at Wooster before transferring to Oberlin, so he's always excited to run there.
"It's always fun to go back because I have a lot of runner friends," he said. "It's always fun to see the coach because there's some friendly tension there."
With his time - 27:40 for the five-mile-long course, Dawe beat all conference opponents.
Junior Harsha Thiramurthy finished 16th in the meet, five spots in front of junior Kit Wells.
The meet was the first at five miles for junior Max Rankenburg and the second at that distance for first-years David Cook and Colin Fishwick. The trio finished 38th, 51st and 56th in the field of 80 runners.
The inexperience doesn't negate the relatively low finish for the Yeomen, a team Dawe believes can be conference champions.
"If you talk to Harsha and you talk to Kit, they're not pleased," Mulligan said. "They're better than that. Max, again, is better than that. So are the other two."
Saturday takes the cross country teams to a meet at Denison, which is the site of the NCAC championships late next month.
It's a stretch: Senior Manda Gillespie and other Oberlin cross-country runners stretch in Philips before a work-out. This week, the team runs at Denison. (photo by Matt Sewell)
Related Stories:
