WINCHESTER, Va.- On a nice, cool Halloween morning, the runners of EMU Cross Country put their fitness to the test in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Championships. The championship meet was held at the tough and hilly course at Kernstown Battlefield just outside of Winchester, Va.
For the men's 8k (4.97 miles), the Royals placed fifth as a team, the best ODACs team finish for the men since the 2022 squad also took home fifth place.
Noah Hagberg, a first-year from Mechanicsville, Va., paved the way for EMU with a 22nd-place finish individually.
Matt Kelly of Washington & Lee was the individual ODAC champion in an 8k time of 24:53.6 as the Generals won the ODAC team title convincingly with a near-perfect score of 16 points, ahead of Lynchburg (45 pts.) and Roanoke (80 pts.).
Highlights
- Team Score: 5th of 9 (160 pts.)
- Hagberg completed the challenging course at Kernstown in a time of 26:47.4, placing just one spot shy of All-ODAC recognition.
- Theo Andreas was the next Royal across the finish line, taking home 30th place in a time of 27:14.2. He was followed by Jonah Smith (53rd/28:00.3), Joshua Reinford (59th/28:13.8) and Luke Buckwalter (75th/29:04.4) to round out the scoring five for the Royals.
- Ben Huyard (92nd/30:23.6), Alex Belisle (98th/31:33.3) and Ben Wheeler (102nd/33:55.2) finished out the lineup of runners for the EMU men. This was the final ODAC Championship meet for the seniors Huyard and Belisle.
What's Next
EMU Cross Country will continue their slate of postseason meets on Saturday, Nov. 14, when they compete at the NCAA Division III South Region Championships at Panorama Farms in Earlysville, Va. The meet will follow the same time schedule as the ODAC Championships, with the women's 6k at 10 a.m. followed by the men's 8k at 11 a.m.
To keep up to date with everything surrounding the EMU cross country program this year, follow EMU Athletics on Instagram, like EMU Athletics on Facebook or visit our website.
