I am very excited about our schedule for next year. We are changing things up a little bit from years past, while keeping some of staples.
We are going to open up September 1st at Wooster. They put on a great meet on a challenging course. they have two races per gender and last year we have our group run both and do it as a workout.
September 10th we will back at Ohio Wesleyan. We went to this meet last year and it is a nice local early season meet. At that point it will be nice to break the monotony of training and go race some people in different color jerseys.
September 24th is the first weekend where inter-regional competition counts for national qualifying purposes. We have a few kids on our team that could qualify to nationals as individuals but I do not know if we are ready as a whole team to make that step yet. That being said we want to start setting the tone for years to come and compete out of region against some of the best teams in the nation. Our plan is to switch our meet each year or I should say four years, so that we get to see different teams, schools, parts of the country etc... This year we have decided to travel to Williams College in Williamstown MA. This is a great meet and always has great competition. I am excited to go to that part of the country at that time of year as it should be beautiful with the leaves starting to change.
The next Friday, October 1st will be another big meet for us. All-Ohio! This is always a good competitive meet and a chance for us to see all of our conference schools and a good portion of our region. Bragging rights are always on the line at All-Ohio.
After a week off we will come back on October 15th for the Oberlin Inter-Regional Rumble. Coach Appenheimer put this meet together back around 2006 so that we could have teams from different regions compete against each other. The course is very flat and fast. He has always done a great job of hosting. There are some teams that are starting to go to different meets this weekend but I want to and will continue to support the local meet. We do not need a big travel week leading into the post season.
October 29th will be the OAC Championship hosted by Capital. This will be a huge meet for us. We are growing as a program and have a goal of getting back to winning conference championships. Our first step is becoming more competitive. With the crew we have coming in I think we can continue to climb the ladder.
November 12 with be our Regional Championships hosted by Hope College in Michigan. Similar to the conference meet this is a meet we strive to become more competitive. We made a big jump last year on the men's side but have another big jump before people even realize we are there. Plus the end of they year is when it really matters. No one remembers who runs what in the first few weeks. You need to show up and run well at conference, Regionals and Nationals.
The following week November 19th will be Nationals in Louisville KY. If things go well this summer and fall we have a great shot at having a group back at this level.
So there you have it, the 2016 Baldwin Wallace University Yellow Jacket Cross Country schedule.
Sep 1- Wooster
Sep 10- Ohio Wesleyan
Sep 17- OFF
Sep 24- Williams
Oct 1- All-Ohio
Oct 8- OFF
Oct 15- Oberlin
Oct 22- OFF
Oct 29- OAC@ Captial
Nov 5- OFF
Nov 12- Regionals @ Hope
Nov 19- NCAA @ Louisville
