The John Carroll University men’s and women’s cross country teams will be competing at the Oberlin Inter-Regional Rumble on Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018 with a 10:30 AM shotgun start.

The meet is hosted by Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. The Blue Streaks will take on some familiar conference foes that were at the All-Ohio Championships on Sept. 29. Baldwin Wallace University and the University of Mount Union will be well represented, two Ohio Athletic Conference rivals.

With the season starting to wind down, head coach Kyle Basista opted to go with split-squad for the upcoming weekend.

A group of 10 will be competing at the Rowan Inter-Regional Border Battle in Logan Township, New Jersey, while the rest of the team will be competing at Oberlin. Graduate Assistant Erin Kiley will be traveling with the team to Oberlin. Kiley has high hopes for both the men and women. After all, both teams had a consistent amount of personal bests at the All-Ohio Championships in both the varsity and open races.

Last year, both teams ran pretty well coming off a slow start from All-Ohio. The men finished second of 31 teams with 106 points, while the women also finished second of 29 teams with 120 points. They will look to keep that streak going into the postseason.

On the men’s side, the team seems pretty confident without having their top runners. Freshmen Sam Coe and Carson Shipley will look to lead their team to a top finish on a course that is mostly flat. Regards to competition, teams such as Allegheny College, Penn State- Behrend, Saint Vincent College, and many others will be present. Erin thinks this would be the right set of circumstances for the guys. “Oberlin is a perfect opportunity to showcase our depth on the men’s side,” says Kiley. “It’s great for individuals as well to step up going into the conference meet.”

It will be very interesting to see what the men can do down the stretch without having their top guys to toe the line with them. A team with this much depth can have a great showing. Other guys that can have an impact for the Blue Streaks include Freshman Jared Arnold, Junior Chad Burrow, Junior Matthew Thomas, and many more.

Moving on to the women, they are coming off some outstanding personal bests from the All-Ohio meet. Freshman Cameron Bujaucius will look to continue to lead the team to a top finish. The girls will take on most likely the same opponents as the guys. Keeping in mind the team’s youth provides great talent, with runners that can make some noise in this type of race.

Kiley has the same mindset for the women as she does for the men. “The women will have a great opportunity this weekend to run some PR’s and gain confidence going into the postseason.” Some other girls who can step up consist of freshman Megan Cassleberry and Shauna Glavin, Junior Jamie Amoroso, and many more.

With youth, there can be some moments with inconsistency, but that can be fixed heading into the postseason. This leaves a chance for the women to step up and take advantage of the last meet of the season before going into conference.