Senior All-American Ian McVey successfully defends individual title, joins Spencer Schulze with All-Region accolades as Men's Cross Country winds up 10th of 38 at Great Lakes Regional

By Blake Moore

SHELBYVILLE, Ind. — Senior All-American Ian McVey (Stow/Munroe Falls) and classmate Spencer Schulze (St. Henry) earned All-Great Lakes Region honors Saturday afternoon, guiding the Ohio Northern men's cross country team to a 10th-place effort in a highly-competitive, 38-team field at the 2018 NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional held at Blue River Memorial Park.

The Polar Bears (97-29 overall) tallied 291 team points en route to the top-10 performance. Calvin (Mich.) earned the top spot after posting 56 team points while fellow OAC school Otterbein captured second with 95 points to earn the two automatic-qualifying bids to the NCAA Championships next weekend.

ONU has now finished among the top-10 teams in the region for 15 consecutive seasons.

McVey successfully defended his individual championship title from the 2017 campaign and booked his third consecutive trip to the NCAA Championships after pacing the field by better than 13 seconds. His 24:52.5 clocking set a new 8k course record and is the third time this season that the senior has finished under 25 minutes.

With the win, the senior has won six individual meet titles in the 2018 season.

Meanwhile, Schulze raced to a 25:58.1 finish to capture the 28th overall spot, which earned him All-Region honors for the first time in his career.

The tandem garners the accolades after ending among the top-35 overall finishers, the cut-off for receiving All-Region honors.

Sophomore Travis Sutter (Fort Recovery) took home 59th overall and wound up third on the team in 26:22.7 after capturing All-OAC honors two weeks ago.

Freshmen Caden Sauerbrey (Dresden/Tri-Valley) and Patrick Baker (Massillon/Jackson) completed the scoring for Northern, finishing fourth and fifth on the team, respectively. The former would cross the tape in 26:49.0 for 95th while the latter recorded a 26:58.2 clocking for 108th overall.

Sophomores Sam Krabacher (Hamilton/Badin) and Jordan Green (Wooster) rounded out the seven competitors for ONU as they ended 149th in 27:33.0 and 153rd in 27:35.3, respectively.

"We struggled a bit as a team today, and our pack was broken up during the race. We will bounce back from this race," head coach Jason Maus stated. "Ian ran really well and ran just as an All-American should. Spencer getting All-Region also led to a nice celebration."

McVey will conclude his final season next Saturday, November 17 with a northwestern trek to Winneconne, Wisconsin for the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships, hosted by UW-Oshkosh. The race is scheduled for 12:15 p.m. Central Standard Time.

With McVey's individual bid to the national championship, Northern continues its current streak of representation at the NCAA Championships, having sent an individual man, woman, or a team to the event since the 2005 campaign.

Team Standings

1. Calvin (Mich.) 56, 2. Otterbein 95, 3. DePauw (Ind.) 142, 4. Case Western Reserve 151, 5. Albion (Mich.) 175, 6. John Carroll 215, 7. Trine (Ind.) 268, 8. Wooster 282, 9. Baldwin Wallace 288, 10. Ohio Northern 291, 11. Mount Union 304, 12. Allegheny (Pa.) 316, 13. Wabash (Ind.) 338, 14. Rose-Hulman (Ind.) 358, 15. Hanover (Ind.) 402, 16. Hope (Mich.) 471, 17. Heidelberg 512, 18. Denison 523, 19. Manchester (Ind.) 564, 20. Earlham (Ind.) 599, 21. Alma (Mich.) 630, 22. Wilmington 649, 23. Oberlin 651, 24. Thomas More (Ky.) 659, 25. Ohio Wesleyan 672, 26. Franklin (Ind.) 679, 27. Kenyon 687, 28. Adrian (Mich.) 706, 29. Bluffton 807, 30. Anderson (Ind.) 836, 31. Olivet (Mich.) 867, 32. Wittenberg 890, 33. Spalding (Ky.) 891, 34. Kalamazoo (Mich.) 971, 35. Muskingum 1102, 36. Capital 1109, 37. Mount St. Joseph 1151, 38. Defiance 1264

Top 5 Individuals

1. Ian McVey (Ohio Northern) 24:52.5, 2. Paul Christian (DePauw) 25:06.1, 3. Addison Smith (Calvin) 25:08.0, 4. Kyle Monahan (John Carroll) 25:09.4, 5. Matt Svetz (Allegheny) 25:10.6

Ohio Northern Individual Results

 1. Ian McVey 24:52.5, 28. Spencer Schulze 25:58.1, 59. Travis Sutter 26:22.7, 95. Caden Sauerbrey 26:49.0, 108. Patrick Baker 26:58.2, 149. Sam Krabacher 27:33.0, 153. Jordan Green 27:35.3