FINAL RESULTS
CEDARVILLE, Ohio – The Otterbein men's cross country team finished one spot back of defending its crown Friday night at the All-Ohio Championships, conducted once again by annual host Cedarville University at the Elvin R. King Course.
The Cardinals were forced to settle with runner-up status this time around in the 2023 installment, as Ohio Northern pulled away from the field to win the title by a healthy 39 points. Otterbein barely held off third-place John Carroll by a single point.
The program, which also finished sixth of 31 teams across all divisions, has now finished first or second in the D3 portion each of the last five years. Otterbein now has a full two weeks off to regroup after three-straight weekends of competition to launch September.
As he did so eloquently in the first two meets, senior
John Nice spearheaded the Cardinal lineup yet again by running 25:05 to cross eighth of a whopping 464 total runners in the event. He was also second among Division III entrants, only trailing All-American Simon Heys from Wilmington.
Emerging sophomore
Payne Ratliff was next in line for the Cards by hustling around in 25:58, good enough to land 46th overall and 19th among his division.
Senior
Cameron Christopher ended his week a bit smoother than it began, as he admirably battled through a malfunctioning switch on the game clock for soccer as a game management worker. He came in third for Otterbein with a trip of 26:00 flat, edging out a John Carroll runner at the line to grab 51st overall.
Ian Clevinger was fourth in the Otterbein rotation with a Top-75 finish himself at 26:15, while
Garrett Miller ran 26:28 to solidify 85th.
Chase Jackson was three seconds back of Miller in a clustered group.
Corey Raffery, taking on his first All-Ohio course, went 26:36 to round out the top seven Cardinal competitors in terms of potential scoring. Many others also laced up for the squad.
Noah Fisher of Findlay won the entire race in 24:14, a smooth 13 seconds ahead of Heys.
Otterbein returns to action on Friday, September 29 when it travels to a pair of meets. Some Cardinals will head to Indiana for the Joe Piane Invite, hosted by Notre Dame in South Bend. The other portion of the team will stay a bit closer, taking part in the Ohio Wesleyan Invitational nearby.
