CEDARVILLE, Ohio - The fastest cross country runner at last weekend's All-Ohio meet runs for Franciscan University. Senior runner Bill Jones won the All-Ohio Intercollegiate Championships with a time of 24:24 in a meet that included runners from Division I, II and III Ohio schools.
"He went out very confident and made his move around mile four and just took off and nobody could catch him," head coach Dan Kuebler said. "He's probably got a good shot at winning nationals with the way he's running."
Jones had good reason for his confidence going into the race, after finishing fourth in the race last year. Kuebler said that winning the state was a goal for Jones this year, who came 12 seconds short of his personal best time.
"In last year's race he finished fourth and we thought 'hey, with another year of training there's no reason he couldn't win it,'" Kuebler said. He added that Jones' performance will give him great confidence moving forward.
The Lady Baron runners also ran well in Cedarville, saving their best performances so far this year for this race. The Lady Baron's top four runners, Nicole Krajewski, Sara Mueller, Theresa Evans and Katherine Manion all ran their best times so far this season, including having three runners under 20 minutes, a rare feat for the team.
"That's the first time we've had that in a long time," Kuebler said.
Part of the women's success was in part to the team being healthy for the first time this season.
"This is the first time we've had our top five all healthy at the same time and I think that's really going to get them excited for conference and for regionals coming up," Kuebler said. "This was a really big step forward."
The women's team finished nineth out of the 21 Division III schools that ran in the meet, with Krajewski finishing fifteenth out of all Division III runners. The men's team finished eighteenth out of 22 Division III Schools.
The other standout runner for the men was sophomore Patrick Flanagan who ran a time of 27:40, his best time of the year.
"That's the first time he's been at 27 minutes all year, he looked very strong," Kuebler said.
The weekend isn't over for Franciscan Cross Country. The team will travel to Edensburg, Pa. Sunday, September 30 to run in the Mt. Aloysius Invite.
