SPORTS

Cross country ends its flat season with hills

by Aaron Mucciolo

All seasons must come to an end.

The end of the 1998 cross country season, a season that had more than its share of ups and downs and that culminated in this past Saturday's NCAA Great Lakes Regional Championship.

The meet, held in Albion Michigan, featured 28 men's and 29 women's division III teams from Ohio, Michigan and Indiana.

This meet mirrored many others for the Yeorunners this season both in performances and sentiments expressed afterwards. Oberlin ran a tough race, keeping true to the form they had developed and progress they had made all season.

But stiff competition and another injury at an inopportune moment would keep both teams from realizing their potential.

Rachel Sims, without question one of the top runners for the women's team, would be unable to race. Teammates tried to pick up the slack, including a team-high 36th (out of 205) place finish by Beth Spaulding and junior Rebecca Grossman's 83rd place finish. Spaulding reportedly 'tore it up' according to another runner and was instrumental in keeping the team within a stone's throw of rivals Case Western and Kenyon. The Yeowomen placed 19th in the meet.

The men would placed 18th. They were at least able to show that their poor finish at the conference meet was a fluke by placing fifth against the other NCAC teams.

Sophomore John Rogers was the top Oberlin runner with a 76th place finish in the field of 200. Hans Petersen and Forrest Crawford snuck into the top half with 98th and 99th place finishes respectively.

All the team members contacted agreed that the standings weren't as accurate a reflection on the season. "The team turned in some really strong performances," said Jenni Huelsman. "We really worked hard, especially for the regional meet, and we really came together as a team."

But the team is also looking forward to this spring's track season. "I'm just going to train like a beast over [winter] break and hopefully get back to where I should be [by spring]," said Huelsman. Seth Capron pointed out that the men will only be losing one runner to graduation. "So we're looking to be strong next year," he said.

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Copyright © 1998, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 127, Number 10, November 20, 1998

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