Buckeyes Finish Ninth at Wisconsin adidas Invitational – Ohio State Buckeyes
10/2/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country
MADISON, Wisc. – The Ohio State men’s cross country team finished in ninth-place Saturday afternoon at the 21 team adidas Invitational hosted by the University of Wisconsin.
“We were hoping to place in the top 5, but really didn’t know what to expect,” head coach Robert Gary said. “The course was pretty fast and we have done only one workout at that place so far. That being said, I couldn’t be happier where we are at right now as far as times and grouping, especially having rested our No. 1 runner.”
Competing without the aforementioned No. 1 runner Taylor Williams, the Buckeyes fought their way to an upper division finish on the challenging 8k course with a total team score of 256. No. 25 Indiana (43 points) upset sixth-ranked and host Wisconsin (75 points) for the coveted title, while No. 23 Princeton (112) and 11th-ranked and defending champion Syracuse (131) finished third and fourth, respectively.
Senior Chad Balyo led the Buckeye effort for the second consecutive meet with a 34th-place time of 24:14. Jake Edwards, running for the first time this season, finished 43rd (24:24), with sophomore Donny Roys following right behind in 44th (24:24). Rounding out the scoring for Ohio State were Adam Green (56th, 24:34) and Julian Meyer (79th, 24:45).
“We are a notoriously slow starting team due to the amount of threshold training we do, so I was very proud of the guys for handling that pace.” Gary added. “We are very strong and we still have a good amount of time to round into “championship season” form. We were seeded eighth last year heading into Big Tens and finished second. This team will be ready.”
Ohio State will take next weekend off before returning to competition Oct. 16 at Pre-Nationals in Terre Haute, Ind.
Ohio State Results
1 34 Chad Balyo 24:14
2 43 Jake Edwards 24:24
3 44 Donny Roys 24:24
4 56 Adam Green 24:34
5 79 Julian Meyer 24:45
6 (81) Cory Leslie 24:47
7 (98) Chris Fallon 25:00
