The Ashland cross country team put up a solid performance on Saturday at the Friendship Invitational in Cedarville. The Eagle men ended up finishing second in the 8K and the women had a fourth place finish running in the 5K.

“I was really happy with how they ran,” said head coach Tom Scott. “For being this early in the season, I was really happy with (the performance).”

Coach Scott did not know what to expect going into the event. 

“I’ve never been to this meet before, so I wasn’t sure how competitive it would be,” said Scott.

For the AU men, the standout of the group was senior David Knack. Knack finished with a time of 25:59.1, good enough for seventh.

“Dave was a little bit of a frontrunner,” said Scott. “But we had a solid pack right behind him.”

The next five Eagle runners who finished did so within 33 seconds of each other. Junior Aubrey Jordan, sophomore Tyler Lance, junior William Cutler, freshman Steven Kapes and junior Zach Humrichouser finished twelfth, fourteenth, fifteenth, eighteenth and twentieth, respectively.

The depth of the men’s squad is something that coach Scott is excited about going forward.

“When we can have six or seven guys finishing within twenty, or thirty seconds of each other in an 8K race, that’s really impressive,” said Scott. “It’s going to make for some tough decisions down the road when got to narrow it down to seven. ”

The Eagle women had three top fifteen finishers. In seventh place were seniors Kylee Bernthisel with an 18:55.7 time, Jilian Bajaksouzian finished in eighth with a time of 18:57.3 and Marissa Sinko ran a time of 19:06.3 for a twelfth place finish.

“Our women ran a really strong pack,” said Scott. “Our top three women finished within ten seconds of their lifetime bests. Our depth is really good on the men’s and women’s side.”

The team with the best performance was at the Friendship Invitational was the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, whose men and women both finished first in the event.

“Milwaukee had a really strong pack,” said Scott. “They were running where Dave was running. So for us to make that next jump, we need to get our pack running where Dave’s running.”

Having the runners run together in a pack is something that coach Scott emphasizes and believes is vital to have success.

“When we’re running in a pack, for every one person our pack passes, it’s five less points for us,” said Scott. “So it makes a huge difference in trying to pass as many people as we can.”

Next on the schedule for the team is the All-Ohio Championships on October 2, but until then, the Eagles will continue to improve.

“Right now, we’re sticking to the plan,” said Scott. “We’re just trying to be consistent with our training. We know we have to run fast in November, that’s when it matters. We’re training through these races, almost like workouts as opposed to trying to race our best. We are getting ready for Regionals. That’s where we’re going to qualify for NCAAs and that’s the plan.”