Men's Cross Country tops pair of nationally ranked NAIA squads to finish 3rd of 13 at Calvin (Mich.) Select Meet

By Jeff Blezien

| Results |

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. —  Ohio Northern men’s cross country team took third out of 13 teams at the 8,000-meter course in the Calvin Cross Country Knight Invite Saturday.

The men (16-4) finished third behind No. 6-ranked Allegheny and No. 7-ranked Calvin (Mich.). Allegheny finished first with 48 points, while Calvin finished second with 83 and Northern finished third with 95.

Northern defeated a pair of nationbally ranked NAIA squads, defeating No. 2-ranked Aquinas (Mich.) and No. 16 Cornerstone (Mich.) Aquinas was fourth with 105 points and Cornerstone was fifth with 144 points.

Senior Alan Bowsher led the Polar Bears with a top-five finish from senior Alan Bowsher, who finished third in a time of 25:03.4.

Seniors Justin Dickman and Brent Hiser finished in 11th and 18th, respectively, in times of 25:20.3 and 25:46.2.

Junior Jacob Schoenlein finished 23rd in a time of 25:58.4 and sophomore Nick Baker finished the scoring for the Polar Bears in 40th in a time of 26:26.1.

Both Hiser and Schoenlein tied their career-best times on Saturday.

Both the men’s and women’s teams will be competing next Saturday, September 26, at the Otterbein Invitational.

Men’s Team Scores
1. #6 Allegheny (Pa.) 48, 2. #7 Calvin (Mich.) 83, 3. Ohio Northern 95, 4. #2 (NAIA) Aquinas (Mich.) 105, 5.#16 (NAIA) Cornerstone (Mich.) 144, 6. Spring Arbor (Mich.) 181, 7. Case Western Reserve 185, 8. Ohio Wesleyan 194, 9. Indiana Tech (Ind.) 215, 10. Baldwin-Wallace 250, 11. Alma (Mich.) 320, 12. Bethel (Ind.) 353, 13. Calvin (Mich.) B 373, 14. Olivet (Mich.) 444.

Individual Top 5 Finishers
1. Zach Ripley (Cornerstone) 24:56.3, 2. Chris Marker (Allegheny) 25:01.3, 3. Alan Bowsher (Ohio Northern) 25:03.4, 4. Kyle Anderson (Spring Arbor) 25:04.1, 5. Robert Veldman (Aquinas) 25:11.0.

Ohio Northern Finishers
3. Alan Bowsher 25:03, 11. Justin Dickman 25:20, 18. Brent Hiser 25:46, 23. Jacob Schoenlein 25:58, 41. Nick Baker 26:26.1, 43. Dan Smith 26:26.6, 44. Nick Swinford 26:28, 53. Ben McPheron 26:38, 77. Tobias Deardorff 27:01, 78. Jared Simon 27:01.3, 81. Kenton Holliday 27:06, 86. Corey Bailey 27:14, 91. Nick Edmonds 27:21, 92. Eric Stack 27:22, 94. Rob Money 27:23, 104. Ben Ankrom 27:33, 106. Travis Isenberg 27:35, 109. Jeff West 27:40, 120. Michael Simmons 27:56, 135. Sean Lemke 28:10.