Of all the athletes at UD, the cross-country folks may labor in as much obscurity as anyone. Still, they put in as much effort as the athletes in the higher profile sports. Forever it seems, this was a throw-away sport at UD - used to meet NCAA and Title IX requirements. No more.
This weekend the Dayton men finished first and the ladies second in the first meet of the season - the Flyer 5K at Indian Ripple Park.
For the men, it was obvious this should be a strong year. With red-shirt senior Mike Anderson back, along with the Lemon twins, there were 3 outstanding runners. Greg Roeth, a medical red-shirt freshman, had credentials that said he could run with the top dogs as well. In cross-country, however, you need 5 good runners to really be competitive. Perhaps the Flyers found that yesterday in freshman Jeremy Schiele who ran a very respectable 15:30 as the fifth man. He may well be the key to how the rest of this season goes. Chris Lemon won the meet in 14:56, the first Flyer ever to go under 15:00 for 5K. To see another 4 runners within 30 seconds or so of that time is quite impressive.
On the ladies side, pre-season MAC favorite Miami just edged out our ladies for first place. For Dayton, Maureen Bulgrin and Liz Coorey came in first and second of all the women. The top 5 Flyer women are all sophomores or juniors.
Results:
Men:
http://www.keysports.net/flyer_5k_2009male_result.htm
Women:
http://www.keysports.net/flyer_5k_2009women_resul.htm