The Ashland University men and women’s cross country teams ran Saturday at the Lake Erie Invitational. The men stay consistent in earning second place while the women earned eighth.

“I was super excited and super pumped afterwards, our guys ran phenomenal,” head coach Thomas Scott said. “Both the girls and guys executed the game plan really well. I wanted all of them to go out pretty conservative in the beginning because we knew the course was really, really hilly.”

Once again crossing the finish line first for the AU women was Emily Schumaker. Behind her was Linda Morales, Jackie Genetin, Cortney Haubert. The women ended with 186 points.

In result of a wrong turn made by the lead cart, the women’s course was moved down to a 4.3k instead of a 6k.

“They were moving up really well and passing a ton of girls and then they just finished and they were all confused and weren’t even tired yet” Scott said, “I think if they would have had the full 6k they would have had the best meet of the season for them as well.”

The men took second place on the hilly course.

“For the guys, over the course of the last four miles, just moved up really well,” Scott said. “I think at the two mile mark Walsh had ten or eleven guys in front of our second runner. Then, by the end of the race we had a few guys in front of their fourth and fifth.”

Nick Hall ran across the finish line first for the team and overall for the meet. This was Hall’s individual win since the GLIAC Championships at Tiffin in 2014.

“Nick sets a really good example for the other guys with the amount of work that he puts in,” Scott said.

Coming in after Hall for the team was Zach Humrichouser, Steven Kapes, and Aubrey Jordan. These four swept the twelfth through fourteenth placings.

The men placed right behind Walsh.

“Walsh beat us, but compared to All-Ohio we had moved up really, really well. I think we are starting to become in really good shape moving into GLIAC and the Regional meet so I’m excited to see what our guys can do” Scott said.

Both the men and women’s cross country teams have two more chances to qualify for Nationals.

“We are a national caliber team and the way it sits right now, we are going to have to work really, really hard to get there” Scott said.

The next meet for the Eagles is The 2016 GLIAC Championships, Oct. 22 at Ferris State.