McVey, Molinaro lead No. 24 Men's Cross at Principia (Ill.) Cowbell Classic
By Caleb Scott
ADA — Junior Ian McVey (Stow/Munroe Falls) and senior Matt Molinaro (Sterling Heights, Mich./De La Salle) led the Ohio Northern men's cross country team to a 12th place finish at the 38-team Principia (Ill.) Cowbell Classic meet on Saturday afternoon.
The Polar Bears improve to 72-17 overall.
Head coach Jason Maus surpassed the 900-win plateau with the 12th place finish.
McVey led ONU across the finish line, posting a 24th place finish in 25:36.82, while Molinaro finished 40th of 354 runners in a season-best 25:55.33.
Senior Bobby Borger (Perrysburg) finished 61st overall in the race and was the third Polar Bear to cross the finish line in 26:12.32.
"Today was a pretty mixed race," said head coach Jason Maus. "I thought we got out really well but we fell off there a little bit. We were able to finish pretty strong. We wanted to finish in the top-10 and were very close to getting there. We were able to beat some nationally ranked program which is a big confidence booster for these guys. This group is experienced and really handled the race well."
No. 1-ranked North Central (Ill.) won the team title with 47 points, No. 2 Geneseo State (N.Y.) was second with 150 points and No. 5 Pomona-Pitzer (Calif.) was third with 156 points.
ONU defeated four nationally-ranked opponents and did not finish behind any team ranked below them in the USTFCCCA standings.
The Polar Bears return to action Oct. 28 as they travel to Tiffin to compete in the OAC Championships.
Team Standings
1. #1 North Central (Ill.) 47, 2. #2 Geneseo State (N.Y.) 150, 3. #5 Pomona-Pitzer (Cal.) 156, 4. #11 Loras (Iowa) 181, 5. #8 Washington (Mo.) 207, 6. #12 MIT 214, 7. #9 Christopher Newport (Va.) 224, 8.#17 Johns Hopkins (Md.) 237, 9. #10 Calvin (Mich.) 257, 10. #15 Wartburg (Iowa) 265, 11. #13 Wisconsin-Eau Claire 331. 12. #24 Ohio Northern 364, 13. #20 Occidental (Cal.) 392, 14. #19 Wisconsin-Stout 400, 15. Chicago (Ill.) 402, 16. #27 Wisconsin-Plateville 437, 17. #31 Emory (Ga.) 494, 18. Albion (Mich.) 558, 19. Wabash (Ind.) 561, 20. Principia (Ill.) 567, 21. Washington and Lee (Va.) 579, 22. Ithaca (N.Y.) 580, 23. Wisconsin-Stevens Point 607, 24. Wisconsin-Whitewater 652, 25. Trinity (Tex.) 674, 26. Illinois Wesleyan 830, 27. Maryville (Mo.) 894, 28. Williams Woods (Mo.) 911, 29. Webster (Mo.) 944, 30. Freed-Hardemann (Tenn.) 950, 31. Kalamazoo (Mich.) 979, 32. Millikin (Ill.) 1003, 33. Dubuque (Iowa) 1037, 34. Rhodes (Tenn.) 1044, 35. Hannibal-LaGrange (Mo.) 1046, 36. Lindewood Belleville (Ill.) 1064, 37. Missouri Baptist 1099, 38. St. Louis Col. of Pharmacy 1267
Top 5 Individuals
1. Isaac Garcia-Cassani (SUNY Geneseo) 24:41.02, 2. Dhruvil Patel (North Central) 24:41.97, 3. Darin Lau (Wis.-Eau Claire) 24:45.78, 4. Andy Reischling (Pomona-Pitzer) 24:56.65, 5. David O'Gara (Washinton) 25:03.80
Ohio Northern Individual Results
24. Ian McVey 25:36.82, 40. Matt Molinaro 25:55.33, 61. Bobby Borger 26:12.32, 130. Spencer Schulze 26:56.42, 138. Sam Boyd 27:01.77, 180. John McNutt 27:31.78, 195. Jordan Green 27:40.88, 231. Andrew Shelton 28:18.24, 258. Travis Sutter 28:59.93, 266. Bryan Peck 29:11.29, 277. Logan Perry 29:31.93
