2017 BW XC schedule

The Baldwin Wallace University men's and women's cross country teams open the 2017 season in a familiar place as they compete in the Wooster Invitational on September 1.  This will mark the 10th straight season that BW has run its opening race on the L.C. Boles Memorial Golf Course. This is a great low key opening meet.  It is any easy trip with some great teams to compete against. They have two different race distances for each gender and a great opportunity to learn the race day routine.  The past two year we have run in both races and used it as a workout.  This year we are going to race and get after it a little more.  I felt that it took us a few races to get into the swing of things and hopefully this will help do that.

In September, BW will compete in the Ohio Wesleyan University Invitational on September 9.  We have gone to this meet the previous two years as well.  I hope to be a little more race ready for this meet this year.  OWU is hosting  the Great Lakes Regional Championships this year and will be changing the course around a little.  This will be a great opportunity for our group to preview the course they will see in November.

Two weeks following the OWU meet we will travel down to Virginia to compete in the Hornet Harrier Invitational hosted by Shenandoah College on September 23.  This is the first countable weekend for head to head out of region competition, and several of the South Region powerhouse teams attend this meet every year.  It will be a great opportunity for our crew to see some teams from outside of the Great Lakes.

The following weekend is the All-Ohio Championships hosted by Cedarville University on September 29.  This is always a great meet, teams from all Divisions and affiliations attend this meet.  This is a great preparation for running at Regionals and Nationals and always a great way to see where you match up in the OAC.

Our final regular season competition is the Inter-Regional Rumble hosted by Oberlin College on October 14.  Oberlin puts on a great meet that brings in some great teams from around the nation.  This is the last big weekend for OAC schools to gain the precious head to head out of region wins.  It is a large meet and tends to run fast, so it is a great opportunity to compete and run fast times.

October 28 begins the championship season with the Ohio Athletic Conference Championships.  This year we will run at Heidelberg University.  For some of our team this will be the last meet of the year.  After finishing 6th on both the men and the women's side last year we have some unfinished business to take care of.  Hopefully both teams learned from the experience and can pass those lessons on to the incoming freshman.  This is a huge meet with school pride on the line.  The OAC meet always has a great atmosphere and each team comes to compete at their highest level.

The NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional Championships hosted by Ohio Wesleyan will be held on November 11.  I am excited to see how we do at the regional meet this year.  I have us projected finishing higher than our 22nd (men) and 19th (women) finish from last year.  But there is a long way to go and a lot can happen before we toe the line in Delaware.

The NCAA Division III Championships hosted by Principia (Ill.) College will be run on November 19.  We have some talented individuals on the team this year that should hopefully make the national meet this season.  It has been several years since the Jackets were represented at the Cross Country National Championships,  hopefully we can reverse that trend this year.

We are very excited about the new look Jackets for this year.  35 more days until students report for practice and 37 days until our 3k time trail.  We will have a much clearer picture on Friday, August 18th at 9am on where this team can go this year.