X-Country takes first and third at Denison

Makes a good sign for NCAC championships

Oberlin's cross country teams took the top two places Saturday at a meet on the course where the NCAC championships will be run late this month.

The men's team, paced by junior Harsha Thirumurthy and senior Alex Dawe, finished top among the four teams - all NCAC members - at the Denison Invitational.

The women's team finished third despite a one-two finish by senior Shannon Fox and first-year Rebecca Grossman.

Fox's time of 19:40 was a course record and the course is one the men's and women's teams will see again at the conference championships Oct. 26.

The conference meet is the focus of the cross country season and the experience on the Denison course could help give the teams a mental edge when it counts.

"Racing is about confidence," coach Tom Mulligan said. "Championship racing is about confidence."

Oberlin's teams didn't concentrate especially on Saturday's meet, though it did show them something. "I think it was good because both teams see now that they're not that far away from being able to meet their goals," Mulligan said.

The men's team beat second place Allegheny by a margin of seven points. Thirumurthy and Dawe finished the 5-mile course in 27:28 and 27:31, 25 seconds ahead of the third-place runner.

Thirumurthy and Dawe made their presence felt in what's likely to be a tough conference battle, though a few top competitors from the opposing team sat out the meet with injuries.

Senior Kit Wells finished fourth in 28:01. The other two scoring runners for the Yeomen were junior Max Rankenburg, who finished 11th and first-year David Cook who took 14th place.

The meet was Rankenburg's third competitive race and only his second at five miles.

In Oberlin's fourth position, Rankenburg leads Oberlin's middle pack of runners. That middle pack for both the men's and women's teams will need to close the gap with the teams' top placers for Oberlin to place highly in the big upcoming meets.

"We're training like mad men and mad women," senior Manda Gillespie said. Gillespie finished 18th in the women's race Saturday, five notches behind sophomore Rachel Sims and just a step ahead of sophomore Katy Jones.

For the women's team, first-year Lisa Mickley, sophomore China Weber and sophomore Alison Widdoes were out with injuries.

The women's team finished with 53 points, three behind second-place Case Western Reserve University and 11 behind Denison University.

Both Fox and Thirumurthy were NCAC athletes of the week for their races.

Both Oberlin teams are idle this week but come back Oct. 11 with the all-Ohio meet at Ohio Weslyan University. That meet is the largest of the year, including 45 teams including NCAA Division I teams such as Ohio State University.

That's the big tune-up before the conference meet, where Mulligan said both teams are looking for high finishes.

"We're strong and we're feeling confident," Rankenburg said. "We're going for first place."