Division III Results
Overall Results

CEDARVILLE, Ohio – The Otterbein University women's cross country team continued its winning ways Friday afternoon, taking the crown at the Division III All-Ohio Championships hosted by Cedarville University.

The Cardinals, finishing atop the field of 18 teams, landed four runners in the top 25, and five runners in the top 35, to score a 80 points and win the All-Ohio for the first time in program history. Otterbein also came in ninth out of 47 teams competing across all divisions.

 

"These women ran another great race today," head coach Dara Ford said. "The conditions weren't ideal, but I thought they just really battled out there. It was our goal to win the Division III race and they did just that."

Freshman Claire Lamb stole the show yet again, outlasting Ohio Wesleyan's Sarah Fowler, by seven seconds, and defeating 272 other runners to cross the tape first in a time of 21:47.17. She now has three wins in three starts.

Lamb's performance was also good enough for a fourth-place finish out of 592 total participants, only slower than three Division I runners. She averaged a pace of 5:48.8 per mile.

"Claire ran a fantastic race," Ford said. "She wasn't afraid to mix it up with the best of Ohio and had a really strong finish, in a really competitive field."

Senior Victoria Konkle and junior Julissa Poullet turned in impressive showings as well, finishing 10th and 16th, respectively, to help pace the Cardinal effort. Konkle ran a time of 22:39.70 while Poullet wasn't far behind at 23:09.59.

Junior Alex Winter contributed a 25th-place finish by hitting the finish line in 23:27.54 while classmate Meredith Wesco rounded out the Otterbein top-5 in 31st-place, covering the 6K-distance in 23:33.71.

Each of those five Cardinals above earned All-Ohio awards, for the first time in their careers, as a result of being inside the top 35.

Lindsey Ruff, Kira Judd and Erin Simko also left with top-50 finishes for an Otterbein group that continues to gain more and more attention.

"This was another step in the right direction for us," Ford added. "Our women have big goals this season and it was great to come out with another win. I'm really proud of how they competed because it was a true team effort."

Otterbein will be back in action in two weeks, with some runners heading to the JennaStrong Invitational at Wilmington College and others taking part in a Pre-National Meet at Wisconsin-OshKosh.