By Caleb Scott
ADA — Sophomore Ian McVey posted a fourth place finish to lead the Ohio Northern men's cross country team at the Bluffton 6k Friday evening.
The Polar Bears improve to 7-0 on the season.
Northern won with 34 points, while Findlay finished second with 69 points and Heidelberg took third with 94 points.
McVey finished in 19:16.41 and narrowly edged out senior Cully Gordon, who finished fifth in 19:16.94.
Seniors Andrew Harden, Kase Schalois and junior Matt Molinaro also posted top-10 finishes for the Polar Bears.
Juniors Bobby Borger and Samuel Boyd finished 12th and 13th, respectively, while senior Aaren Hemmelgarn and sophomore Spencer Schulze also posted top-20 finishes.
"This was a very good opener for us," said head coach Jason Maus. "The teams did a great job of executing the race plan. This is a great way for us to get back into the cross country racing mode. This is a good way for the freshman to get welcomed into the college program."
Northern had nine runners place in the top-20.
"We're excited about where we are and now we have some things we need to work on in order to improve," said Maus. "
We're very deep and experienced up front. The freshman got eased into it with a 6k and now have to add 2k more. We have some areas to improve upon and some gaps to close."
The Polar Bears also had an Alumni Team that finished fourth in the team standings.
"One of the best parts of this meet is the Alumni support. We had 25+ alumni back to help us kick off the season. We always appreciate the support and love to make the connections from the past to the present."
The Polar Bears will return to action Sept. 16 as they travel to East Lansing to compete in the Michigan State Spartan Invitational at 11:50 am.
Team Standings
1. Ohio Northern 34, 2. Findlay 69, 3. Heidelberg 94, 4. Ohio Northern Alumni 95, 5. Bluffton 116, 6. Tiffin 159, 7. Ohio Christian 182, 8. Lourdes 215, 9. Defiance 274
Top 5 Individuals
1. James Ngandu, (Tiffin) 18:45.72, 2. Eric Wymer (ONU Alumni) 19:02.48, 3. Jonathan Allen (Findlay) 19:08.28, 4.
Ian McVey (Ohio Northern) 19:16.41, 5.
Cully Gordon (Ohio Northern) 19:16.94
Ohio Northern Individual Results
4.
Ian McVey 19:16.41, 5.
Cully Gordon 19:16.94, 6.
Andrew Harden 19:17.32, 9.
Matt Molinaro 19:30.80, 10.
Kase Schalois 19:33.92, 12.
Bobby Borger 19:38.73, 13.
Samuel Boyd 19:45.42, 15.
Spencer Schulze 19:51.59, 17.
Aaren Hemmelgarn 19:54.77, 27.
Eric Collins 20:23.55, 30.
Wyatt Stahl 20:33.52, 31.
John McNutt 20:39.94, 36.
Ian McKee 20:48.83, 38.
Riley Lamison 20:50.95, 41.
Logan Perry 20:56.04, 42.
Andrew Kurtz 20:56.63, 47.
Alec Lunney 21:04.90, 49.
Andrew Shelton 21:08.89, 57.
Dominic Solis 21:17.81, 58.
Kyle Neff 21:18.84, 60.
Bryan Peck 21:21.10, 63.
Tyler Kennedy 21:25.26, 73.
Michael Murray 22:00.49, 84.
Jacob Gallaher 22:44.35, 89.
Dustin Lumadue 23:13.22.
