Season Review: Women’s Cross Country enjoys strong season in 2021

By Wes Mayberry

ADA — The Ohio Northern women's cross country team had an outstanding 2021 season, securing its best Ohio Athletic Conference finish since winning the championship in 2012.

Returning to the course after the 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Polar Bears posted an overall record of 95-31 with a third-place finish at the Ohio Athletic Conference Championships and a seventh-place finish at the NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regionals. This marked the 19th straight season that ONU finished in the top five at the OACs and the team's fourth straight top-10 finish at regionals.

"We had a good season. We were regionally ranked all season long and were pretty steady most of the year," 13th-year head coach Jason Maus said. "There were a couple times early in the season where we got beat by some teams that we would've liked to have beat, but we put it all together there at the regional meet. The OAC Championships was our best race as a team, and to run as well as we did at the regional meet was a big success."

During the regular season, ONU placed second in the Polar Bear Invitational, fifth in the All-Ohio Championships, ninth in the Louisville Classic and 11th in the Oberlin Rumble, all of which were in the top half of their respective fields. In the postseason, the Polar Bears placed third of 10 teams at the OAC Championships and seventh — behind six nationally ranked teams — of 37 at the Great Lakes Regionals, scoring 70 and 221 points, respectively.

Senior Tessa Pitcovich (Stow/Stow-Munroe Falls) was the headliner for the Polar Bears in 2021, qualifying for the NCAA Division III Championships for the second time in her career en route to earning the prestigious NCAA Elite 90 award at the national meet in Louisville, Ky.

Pitcovich qualified for the NCAA Championships as an at-large selection and had high hopes of achieving All-American status as a top-40 finisher after placing 77th at nationals as a sophomore in 2019. She ran a time of 22:41 and placed 139th, but Pitcovich stood in rarefied air after the race as the recipient of the Elite 90 award for Division III women's cross country.

The Elite 90 is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA's 90 championships. Pitcovich boasts a cumulative 4.0 GPA in accounting and is the fourth student-athlete — and first female — at ONU to earn this award.

"The Elite 90 award is tremendous — that's a big-time award," Maus said.

This was the 17th consecutive year that ONU cross country was represented at the NCAA Championships, and it was Pitcovich who paced the Polar Bears in all six meets in 2021. Her career-low time of 22:08 at the Great Lakes Regionals is fourth-best in program history for 6,000 meters and earned her All-Region honors with her fifth-place finish out of 266 runners at the meet. That followed her second-place finish at the OAC Championships with a time of 23:17, which earned her All-OAC recognition. She also posted overall finishes of third at the Polar Bear Invitational, sixth at the All-Ohio Championships, 18th at the Louisville Classic and sixth at the Oberlin Rumble. Her performance at the Louisville Classic earned her an OAC Women's Cross Country Runner of the Week accolade.

"Tessa had a great year," Maus said. "She battled some things health-wise and with the mentality of being a big front-runner that comes with pressure and challenges, and she handled it well. She does such a good job of improving throughout the year, and she really stepped up as we moved through the season. I'm proud of her accomplishments."

Senior Taylor Ellerbrock (Columbus Grove) joined Pitcovich as an All-Great Lakes Region honoree after placing 20th at regionals with a career-best time of 22:43, which is the 11th-fastest mark in program history for 6,000 meters. Ellerbrock also earned All-OAC honors with her 13th-place finish at the OACs with a time of 24:12. She placed second to Pitcovich among ONU runners in four of six meets this season, including overall finishes of sixth in the Polar Bear Invitational, eighth in the All-Ohio Championships and 27th in the Louisville Classic.

"Taylor ran really well at the conference meet, and her performance at the regional meet was tremendous," Maus said. "She's someone who can make a run at the national meet next year as an individual qualifier and hopefully help get our team over the hump and into the national meet."

Senior Rue Whitmore (Mason) and sophomore Megan Vapenik (Strongsville) placed 12th and 22nd, respectively, with times of 24:09 and 24:47 at the conference meet, giving ONU four All-OAC honorees. Vapenik, who was second among ONU runners at the Oberlin Rumble with a 60th-place time of 23:56, went on to post a career-low time of 23:23 for a 54th-place finish at regionals. Whitmore ran a 23:34 at the regional meet, placing 62nd.

"Rue is a staple in our lineup. You know you're going to get her best effort and a solid race out of her. Her conference race was by far her best of the season. She was on a mission and ran with fire and passion, and you love to see seniors have races like that in big moments," Maus said. "Megan is starting to come into her own. She's a sophomore that needed some experience, and she really started to put things together there at the end. Her conference race was really good, and she was steady at the regional meet. She's a really intelligent racer, and you know you're going to get maximum effort from her. She's going to be a staple for us and someone we really count on down the road."

Other top runners for ONU in 2021 included senior Sophia Thompson (Mount Vernon/Highland), junior Lexi Neff (Northfield/Walsh Jesuit) and freshmen Olyvia Ashbrook (Johnstown/Northridge) and Bailey Kreft (Sunbury/Buckeye Valley), who each posted a top-five finish among Polar Bears in at least one meet this season. Freshman Ashley Hockstok (Westerville/Central) also stood out.

"Sophia ran well at the regional meet, which was huge for us, and you love to see seniors go out having their best race at the end of their career," Maus said. "Lexi is more of a middle-distance runner, and it's nice to see her gain some confidence in cross country. She is one who could contribute next year. And Olyvia, Bailey and Ashley gained some great exposure and experience at this level. Those three are going to be really good down the road. They're going to be big keys to our success, and we're going to lean on them a lot next fall."

Maus also highlighted sophomore Sydney Goodrich (Romeo, Mich.) as one who put together a solid season.

Off the course, seven Polar Bear runners earned Academic All-OAC recognition this season, including seniors Ellerbrock, Pitcovich, Thompson and Whitmore and sophomores Lizzy Dingman (Burton/Berkshire), Olesya Mertz (Johnstown/Johnstown-Monroe) and Rachel Thompson (West Milton/Milton-Union).

Whitmore and Sophia Thompson earned the honor for the third time in their careers, and it marked the second such honor for Ellerbrock and Pitcovich.

Looking ahead to 2022, Maus likes the position the Polar Bears are in, especially with the prospect of both Pitcovich and Ellerbrock returning as fifth-year seniors.

"We're excited about next year because we're going to have a big core of our team back," he said. "We've got some good key pieces and role players, and you combine that with a couple of front-runners, and all of a sudden you can be really dangerous. So we're excited about that. This team is in a good spot for the next few years."