Season Preview: Men's Cross Country looks to repeat as OAC champions in 2016

By Caleb Scott

ADA — The Ohio Northern men's cross country team will look to repeat as Ohio Athletic Conference champions in 2016 under eighth year head coach Jason Maus.

Northern returns an experienced group of runners from the 2015 squad, including eight letterwinners, nine seniors and six All-OAC honorees.

Seniors Andrew Harden and Kase Schalois return this season after being named First Team All-OAC in 2015, while senior Aaren Hemmelgarn garnered Second Team All-OAC honors in 2015.

Seniors Cameron Rusnak, Ian McKee, Andrew Kurtz, Cully Gordon and Eric Collins will all look to lead the Polar Bears in 2016.

Sophomores Samuel Boyd and Spencer Schulze will also play an extended role for Northern.

"Eric, Sam and Spencer all had great years last year. Those guys will be big contributors for us this season," said head coach Jason Maus.

Also returning as letterwinners for the Polar Bears are juniors Bobby Borger and Matt Molinaro who were named First Team and Second Team All-OAC, respectively.

Freshman Ian McVey will look to be a big contributor in 2016 after being named Second Team All-OAC in 2015.

Harden, Gordon, Borger, Schalois and McVey each hold a top-20 fastest time in Ohio Northern history in the 8k.

"We expect the all-conference guys to come back and have big years for us this season," said Maus. "We really need to take advantage of our depth and the experience that we have."

The Polar Bears will welcome seven freshmen to the team in 2016.

"We have a good group of freshmen coming in this season. The learning curve will be relatively steep for them but we think they will be able to catch on quick and become important pieces to this team."