Trio Of Chippewas Earn All-MAC Honors

TOLEDO, Ohio -- Megan O'Neil and Luke Anderson led the way for the Central Michigan cross country teams on Saturday at the Mid-American Conference Championships at Ottawa Park Golf Course.

O'Neil placed sixth in the women's race, while Anderson was seventh in the men's event. Both earned First Team All-MAC honors. It was the second consecutive time that O'Neil has landed on the first team, while Anderson was a second-team honoree last fall.

Both Chippewa squads finished sixth.

Eastern Michigan successfully defended its women's team title, while Miami (Ohio) won the men's championship.

WOMEN
O'Neil led the way for the CMU women, finishing the 6K race in 20:58. It marked the third consecutive year that she has earned all-conference honors after placing fifth in 2017 and ninth in '16.

CMU's Kristen Olling placed 10^th in 21:28, earning second-team all-conference honors. It marked the second time in her career that Olling has earned All-MAC honors.

"O'Neil isn't entirely satisfied with her performance, but it is definitely a step in the right direction," CMU women's coach Jenny Swieton said. "For Olling, that was a huge race for her. It's a real big improvement from what she's done all season."

Also for the Chippewas, Megan Merlino finished 25^th with a time of 22:04; Samantha Allmacher was 52^nd (22:39) and Lauren Beckman (22:40) was 53^rd.

Improvement was tangible, both individually and team wide, Swieton said.

"I think everybody showed huge improvement," she said. "If you look at last year's results, our second-best runner was 27^th overall, and this year our third-best runner finished 25^th, and last year our fifth-best runner finished 65^th overall and this year our eighth-best runner finished 58^th.

"So, our eighth-best runner this year finish higher than our fifth-best runner finished a year ago."

MEN
Anderson turned in an outstanding effort in the men's 8K race, coach Matt Kaczor said.

"That was a great race by (Anderson)," Kaczor said. "He moved up throughout the race and caught up to that lead group with about 1 kilometer to go and he was able to finish with them."

CMU's Mark Beckmann finished 18^th in 25:09. Also for the Chippewas, Chandler Lorf finished 32^nd (25:37), while both Logan Kleam and Riad Rababeh finished with a time of 25:38.9. Kleam placed 34^th and Rababeh was 35^th.

"We're in a good conference and it's tight where every point matters," Kaczor said. "I always want to be competitive. But we have four guys that were running their very first MAC meet and then we have Anderson and Beckmann, who have been our steady guys this season.

"I'm happy with how they competed; with experience, we'll get better and better throughout the years since we basically don't graduate anyone outside of this group."

WINNERS
Josh Park, a sophomore from Ohio, won the men's race in 24:08. Senior Natalie Cizmas of Eastern Michigan won the women's race in 20:34.

The EMU women finished with 76 team points to edge runner-up Toledo (80). Miami (Ohio) was third with 97. Miami placed four runners in the top 10 to win the men's race with 42 points. Bowling Green (86) was second.

NEXT
The Chippewas are scheduled to partake in the NCAA Great Lakes Regional on Friday Nov. 9.

TRACK OR TREAT
The Chippewa cross country and track teams are scheduled to host their "Track or Treat" event from 2-4 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 28 at the Indoor Athletic Complex. Children in eighth grade or younger will have an opportunity participate in various track-and-field events.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Luke Anderson

Mark Beckmann

Logan Kleam

Chandler Lorf

Riad Rababeh