TIFFIN, Ohio - Before the season, Tiffin head mens coach Ron Martin said that he felt the 2010 cross country teams could be the best in school history. If today was any indication, this may indeed be a banner year.
The Tiffin men claimed five of the top six individual spots for 19 points to defeat Heidelberg (59) and Lake Erie College. The women also won with 36 points, claiming the top two individual finishes and three top-10 finishers overall. Heidelberg took second with 47 points, followed by a pair of Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference-foes in Lake Erie College (66) and Ohio Dominican (72).
Jeremy Lee took the championship on the mens side, finishing the four-mile race in 20:32, 13 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor.
"We looked really strong coming in at the finish," explained mens cross country head coach Ron Martin. "We have not cut back at all and, if anything, we were tired because we practiced all week at 6:30 in the morning because of the 90 degree heat all week.
"It is tough for a college kid that is used to sleeping in to get up that early. It is a tribute to them to get up that early and not complain. I was impressed with the performances in our first meet," Martin said.
Carly Reese took the womens two-mile race with a time of 11:47 with Becky Miller finishing second five seconds later.
"I was happy with our results today," said womens cross country head coach Thomas Buxton. "We sat out a pair of athletes I believe are in our top five as this meet was more of a tune-up to have some of the team to get used to collegiate running. I was so happy to come away with a win but our real test comes in two weeks."
Also on the mens side, the Dragons claimed third through ninth. Dominique ONeill took third with a time of 20:45, less than a second behind Heidelbergs Jordan Karnes. Kyle Faerber took fourth (20:55), Kyle Anderson took fifth (20:58) while Jason Bumb (21:06) took sixth to finish out the Tiffin top five. Mike Eblin (21:09), Atlantis Troutman (21:11) and Alex Frey (21:14) took sixth-ninth.
Besides Reese and Miller for the womens team, Ashley Madison crossed the finish line ninth with a time of 13:17. Rounding out the top-5 finishers for TU was Samantha Hassen in 11th place with a time of 13:27. Cassie Kohler finished 13th in 13:33.
The Tiffin cross country teams return to action Sept. 18 when they travel to Cedarville, Ohio to take part in the 20th annual Friendship Invitational. The mens race is set to begin at 10 a.m.
