McCarron, Knoll Earn All-Conference Honors at OAC Championships

Related Links:
Men's Results
Women's Results
NCAA Great Lakes Region Meet Web Page

The Capital University men's and women's cross country teams were in action at the OAC Championships earlier today in Wilmington, Ohio.

The women's team took home a seventh place finish with a total time of 2:09:08.30. The Crusaders' seventh place finish in this year's race marked a two-slot improvement from their 2011 placement, when they took home ninth.

Leading the team for Capital were senior Emma McCarron (Mansfield, Ohio) with a time of 23:05.1 and a finish of third overall, as well as sophomore Jessi Knoll (Willard, Ohio; at right), who finished at 24:22.8 in 14th place overall.

Following the race, both McCarron and Knoll picked up All-OAC honors as McCarron was named first team All-OAC and Knoll earned second team honors. For both women, their placement on the All-OAC teams were just another impressive mark on what has already been an outstanding season for them individually. 

Crossing the finish line in the 27th minute were junior Samantha Watts (LaGrange, Ohio) 27:07.1, senior Jess Cooper (27:09.2), and junior Shelby Rohr (Nova, Ohio) 27:24.1. 

Also placing for the Capital women's team was sophomore Christina Cross (Marysville, Ohio) 30:39.2.

For the Capital men's cross country team, they finished in the No. 10 spot for the second year in a row behind rival Otterbein by a slim margin of 28 seconds. 

Senior Bret Nehrenz (Seville, Ohio; at left) was the top finisher for the Crusader men with a mark of 27:18.7 and a 51st-place finish out of 147 competing runners. Finishing 11 seconds behind Nehrenz was Ed Wigton (Lucas, Ohio) with a time of 27:29.9, adding another outstanding performance to his impressive freshman campaign.

In the 28th minute of the Men's 8K, junior Mitch Stith (Sunbury, Ohio) 28:01.5, senior Dustin Iacovone (Westerville, Ohio) 28:14.5, freshmen Phil Baer (Westerville, Ohio) 28:16.1, Jeremy Rohr (Nova, Ohio) 28:22.3, and Kyle Arvan (Gladstone, Michigan) 28:49.0 crossed the finish line.

The 29th minute saw freshman Paul Blanchard (Howard, Ohio) 29:04.1, senior Zach Heyne (New Castle, Indiana) 29:08.7, and senior Ben Herbert (Bainbridge Township, Ohio) 29:36.2 all finish within 32 seconds of each other.

Finishing right behind Herbert and rounding out the Capital men's finishers was junior Erik Morris (Cincinnati, Ohio) 30:29.8.

The Crusaders return to action in two weeks at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional in Alexandria, Ind., on Nov. 10. Navigate to the link above to view information on the meet, which is hosted by Anderson University.