Richards, Baumann earn All-Conference honors, leads Women's Cross Country to 4th place finish at 2016 OAC Championships
By Tim Glon
DELAWARE — Junior Emily Richards (Delaware/Hayes) and sophomore Ashlie Baumann (Sterling Heights, Mich./Stevenson) earned All-Conference honors with top-18 finishes to lead Ohio Northern at the 2016 Ohio Athletic Conference Women's Cross Country Championships Saturday morning at Columbus State Community College.
The Polar Bears (31-37 overall) finished fourth out of 10 teams with 105 points.
Richards finished second out of 125 runners in 22:09 and Baumann finished 11th in 22:38.
The top nine finishers earn First Team All-OAC honors and runners 10-18 receive Second Team All-Conference kudos.
Junior Nikki Huber (Findlay) finished 23rd in 23:32, senior Genevieve Marchese (Dayton/Carroll) was 30th in 23:52 and and sophomore Colleen Grainger (Hilliard/Bradley) finished 44th in 24:19 for Ohio Northern.
"We raced hard," ONU head coach Jason Maus said. "We knew it would be tight near the top. I thought we executed our game plan well. I am happy for Emily and Ashlie. We had some others run well, too."
No. 18-ranked Otterbein won the team title in a 6-women tiebreaker with John Carroll as each team finished with 46 points. OU won the title as its sixth runner finished two spots ahead of JCU's sixth runner.
Otterbein's Claire Lamb won the individual title in 21:57.
The Polar Bears will return to action on Nov. 12 at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional Championships at Holland, Mich.
Team Standings
1. #18 Otterbein 46, 2. John Carroll 46, 3. Heidelberg 88, 4. Ohio Northern 105, 5. Mount Union 118, 6. Baldwin Wallace 166, 7. Capital 189, 8. Muskingum 212, 9. Marietta 279, 10. Wilmington 315.
Top 18 Individuals (All-OAC)
1. Claire Lamb (Ott) 21:57, 2. Emily Richards (ONU) 22:09, 3. Rachel House (Berg) 22:14, 4. Alex Winter (Ott) 22:14, 5. Hayley Cochran (Berg) 22:16, 6. Erin Kiley (JCU) 22:18, 7. Paschasia Modrzynski (JCU) 22:18, 8. Heather Sandvik (Ott) 22:25, 8. Cassie Schillero (JCU) 22:31, 10. Becky Rohwer (JCU) 22:36, 11. Ashlie Baumann (ONU) 22:38, 12. Dani Blum (Berg) 22:42, 13. Kelly Brennan (BW) 22:43, 14. Lauren Gornik (JCU) 22:43, 22:43, 15. Julie Fobes (Musk) 22:44, 16. Kira Judd (Ott) 22:56, 17. Katy Foltz (Ott) 22:57, 18. Katie Durisin (MtU) 23:03.
Ohio Northern Individual Results
2. Emily Richards 22:09, 11. Ashlie Baumann 22:38, 23. Nikki Huber 23:32, 30. Genevieve Marchese 23:52, 44. Colleen Grainger 24:19, 48. Angie Sullivan 24:23, 49. Kathleen Colvin 24:24, 51. Danielle Sutter 24:29, 58. Madeleine Routhier 24:41, 61. Janelle Posthuma 24:44, 64. Elizabeth Martin 24:56, 67. Avery Ewing 25:00, 68. Megan Joseph 25:01, 73. Zoe Schilling 25:13, 83. Jocelyn Reinhart 26:02, 86. Elizabeth Steele 26:08, 101. Morgan Rouch 27:14, 109, Paige Giessler 27:39, 123. Renee Kraft 31:48.