Tickets// THE STARTING LINE
The University of Cincinnati cross country teams return to Terre Haute, Ind., this week as the Bearcats will join runners from 33 other programs to compete in the 2018 NCAA Great Lakes Region Championships on the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course Friday. The meet, hosted by the NCAA and Indiana State, will see the women run in a 6,000m race starting at 11:15 a.m. with the men's 10,000m run following at 12:15 p.m. The meet, one of nine being held around the nation Friday, will be utilized to determine the teams and individuals that will qualify to Madison, Wis., on November 17 for the 2018 NCAA Cross Country Championships.
// FOLLOW US
For up to the minute updates, follow UC Track & Field/Cross Country (@GoBearcatsTFXC) on Twitter, Facebook (GoBearcatsTFXC) and Instagram (GoBearcatsTFXC) and join in the conversation by using the hashtag #Bearcats.
// QUICK SPLITS
• The Bearcats placed 5th (men) and 8th (women) in the AAC Championships that were held Thursday, October 25, in New Orleans
• Aaron Bienenfeld led the way for the men by finishing 3rd and earned all-conference honors
• Bienenfeld has raced four times in 2018 and placed in the Top 9 in all four events
• Sammy Hentz was the top finisher for the women as she placed 40th overall
• Friday's meet will be the second of the year the Bearcats have run in Terre Haute, Ind., after competing in the John McNichols Invitational on September 15
• This week's race will be the first 10,000m event of the year for the men after primarily running 8,000m races throughout the season (women will run 6,000m once again)
// THE STAKES
The Great Lakes Region meet is one of nine regional competitions that will be held around the nation this week as a selection tool for the NCAA Championships. Along with crowing team and individual champions at each site, the teams that finish first and second at each region will automatically earn berths into the NCAA Championships (18 teams) with the NCAA adding 13 more squads from around the nation as at-large selections for 31 total teams running. Individually, the Top 4 runners from each of the nine regions that are not members of qualifying teams will be invited to compete with the NCAA adding two at-large selections for 38 total runners. At-large selections will only be made from the pool of runners finishing in the Top 25 of their respective regional race.
// RESULTS
Live.TimingMD.net will provide live results of both races Friday. Full and complete results from the meet will be posted there as well as on NCAA.com and GoBearcats.com following the action.
// ON THE AIR
FloTrack.com will stream both races in Terre Haute live Friday. The stream is subscription based.
// WHO'S IN?
The list of teams set to compete in the Great Lakes Region event includes 34 women's teams and 31 men's. Both fields will feature five teams that are currently ranked in the national Top 30 of the USTFCCCA rankings including men's teams Wisconsin (3), Notre Dame (10), Purdue (15), Indiana (23) and Michigan (27) and women's teams Michigan (7), Michigan State (10), Wisconsin (11), Indiana (14) and Notre Dame (18). In the men's event, five conference championship teams will run, including Wisconsin (Big Ten), Notre Dame (ACC), Miami (MAC), Dayton (A-10) and Youngstown State (Horizon) while two women's team champions are set to line up including Michigan (Big Ten) and Eastern Michigan (MAC).
// BACK AGAIN
Friday's meet will mark the second time the Bearcats have raced in Terre Haute this year as UC took part in the John McNichols Invitational on September 15 on the same course they will run this week. In their second meet of the season, the Bearcats men placed 4th overall and the women 8th as they raced 8,000m and 5,000m distances, respectively. Aaron Bienenfeld made his collegiate cross country debut and placed fourth overall while Hannah Markel was the top UC woman in 31st place.
// RECAP: AAC CHAMPIONSHIPS
Run in continual rain and on sloppy grounds in New Orleans, the Bearcats men finished fifth overall and the women eighth at the 2018 AAC Championships October 25. The men had three individuals finish in the Top 26 with Aaron Bienenfeld leading the way with his third-place showing while Nick Grismer placed 20th and Andrew Schille 26th. On the women's side, Sammy Hentz led the charge with a 40th-place showing as UC's five scoring runners finished within 40 seconds of one another. With their team finish, the Bearcats women have earned a pair of Top 8 finishes in the past three years, its best showing since a trio of Top 8 finishes from 2002-04.
// ALL-CONFERENCE HONORS
With his bronze medal, Bienenfeld earned all-conference honors, the first for the men since the 2016 season saw both Toby Loveridge (7th) and Dan Huben (13th) post Top 15 finishes. In just his fourth collegiate race, Bienenfeld earned his fourth Top 10 finish and his third Top 4 finish of the year while posting the best finish for a UC runner in the AAC era (since 2013). He also posted the best finish in a conference finish for the men since Eric Finan won the 2011 BIG EAST title while becoming the 26th man since 1980 to earn all-conference honors as he secured the 46th accolade in that time.
// RECENT REGIONAL HISTORY • WOMEN
Last year, the women placed 21st in the Great Lakes Region Championships to either improve or maintain their regional finish for the fifth year in a row after posting finishes of 29th, 28th, 24th and 21st before last year. To date, five women have placed in the Top 25 in the regional championship race with the most recent addition coming in 2008 with Lilian Jelimo adding her name to the list.
// RECENT REGIONAL HISTORY • MEN
The men placed 21st last year in the regional meet, slipping outside of the Top 20 for just the second time in the last five years. To date, six individuals (since 1980) have finished among the Top 25 in the regional meet with Kevin Fink the most recent to do so a the 2014 championships. UC has had one champion in the regional competition with Eric Finan winning the 2010 event.
// QUALIFYING FROM THE REGION
Andrew Schille returns to the regional competition for the third time in his career, but the first with the Bearcats. Schille raced at the NCAA Southeast meet each of the last two years with Northern Kentucky and was nearly a two-time Top 25 finisher as he was 22nd last year (29:40.9) after taking 27th (30:13.3) one year prior.
PREVIOUSLY NOTED
// NO STRANGERS TO WINNING
Entering the meet this week, the Bearcats men boast two individuals that have previously won conference titles in Aaron Bienenfeld and Andrew Schille. Bienenfeld, who joined the program in January, is the reigning 10,000m outdoor track champion in the AAC. Schille, who joined the program as a graduate transfer in August, won the 2017 Horizon League cross country title to add to his collection of crowns indoors (mile and 5,000m in 2018) and out (1,500m in 2017).
// REGIONALLY RANKED
Earlier this season, the UC men were ranked in the Great Lakes Region for the first time since Week 6 of the 2016 season when they received back-to-back #13 rankings. Dating back to the start of the rankings in 2008, the UC men have been ranked 36 times with their #8 standing in the preseason and Week 1 of the 2011 season being their highest.
// FEELING HONORED
Aaron Bienenfeld tackled the 8,000m course at E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Ky., September 29 and placed ninth overall in the field of 252 runners in the gold race at the Greater Louisville Classic. That run not only saw him cross the finish line in 23:56.8 for his second Top 10 finish of the year, it also earned him the AAC Male Cross Country Athlete of the Week award, the first of his career and the second earned by the UC men so far this year. Bienenfeld's time in Louisville was a 1:04.4 improvement his first 8,000m collegiate race run two weeks prior at the John McNichols Invitational and made him the first UC man to break 24 minutes on an 8k course since Evan Baum ran 23:42.5 at the 2013 AAC Championships in Madison, Conn., finishing sixth overall in the inaugural meet.
// ADDING TO THE HAUL
With his honor earned from the AAC, Bienenfeld becomes not only the second UC man to be honored this year, but also just the second in the history of the program since the Bearcats joined the AAC in 2013 with Andrew Schille being the first. The duo are the first Bearcats to capture a weekly award for the program since 2011 when Eric Finan was named the BIG EAST Cross Country Runner of the Week on October 18 after placing third at the highly-competitive NCAA Pre-National meet.
// BIG IMPROVEMENTS • WOMEN
All season, the women have been posting PRs with three large improvements earned at the Bradley Pink Classic last week. Despite the muddy, wet and sometimes snowy conditions, the trio of Sydney Hess, Sammy Hentz and Hannah Markel each recorded big PRs. Hess improved her 6,000m time by 1:15.9 while Hentz and Markel saw improvements of 33.8 and 22.8, respectively. Katrina Patterson also has been showing big improvements all year as her three 5,000m races ahead of Bradley have netted an improvement of 1:28.5.
// BIG IMPROVEMENTS • MEN
The men also have seen several of their runners post big improvements this year with many of those marks coming at the Greater Louisville Classic where six individuals posted improvements of 40 seconds or more. Leading the way were a pair of freshmen in Christian Stevens and Keifer Mosmeier, who improved over their times from the McNichols Invitational by 1:08 and 1:06.1, respectively. Aaron Bienenfeld posted an improvement of 1:04.4 while Matt Stump's improvement was 52.5. The other two big improvements came from Toni Banos and Ryan Guenthner, who lowered their times by 43.7 and 40.9, respectively.
// MORE ON SCHILLE'S WIN
Schille's win brought a bit of history with it as he became just the second man to win the QCI three times in a career, joining former UC All-American Eric Finan with three crowns. Schille's third win also made him the first runner to win for two different teams as he won the past two running for Northern Kentucky before graduating and joining the UC program this fall. His win was the 19th for a UC runner and the first since 2011 when Finan captured his third in the 2011 race.
// ANOTHER FIRST
Schille was not done with history there, however. Following the meet, he was selected as the American Athletic Conference Men's Cross Country Athlete of the Week. He is the first UC runner (man or woman) to collect a weekly award from the AAC since the league was founded in 2013. Going back to previous conference affiliations, Schille is the first UC athlete to earn a weekly award since Finan was named the BIG EAST Runner of the Week on October 18, 2011.
// NEW TO THE TEAM - WOMEN
The newest additions to the women's roster this year include five true freshmen and one redshirt sophomore. The five freshmen include Maggie Breitenstein (Cincinnati/St. Ursula), Leah Maschino (Maineville, Ohio/Kings), Janey McManus (Huntsville, Ala./Grissom), Madalyn O'Dea (Louisville/Christian Academy) and Rylee Penn (Corona, Calif./Centennial). The final newcomer is Ellee Bullock (Dublin, Ohio/Jerome). Bullock has been a member of two collegiate tennis programs, starting her career at Utah State before transferring to UC in time for the 2017-18 season.
// NEW TO THE TEAM - MEN
The men's newcomers include a mix of three true freshmen, one sophomore, one junior and one graduate senior. The rookies include Toni Banos (Spain), Keifer Mosmeier (Laurelville, Ohio/Logan Elm) and Christian Stevens (Indianapolis/Brebeuf Jesuit), with Jack Cordonnier (Morrow, Ohio/St. Xavier) joining as a sophomore after running for the UC Running Club last year. The final two newcomers have had great success in college already, including Aaron Bienenfeld (Germany), who joined the UC program in time for the 2018 track & field season in which he won the AAC 10,000m outdoor title, and Andrew Schille (Cincinnati/Oak Hills), a graduate transfer from NKU where he was a four-time champion in the Horizon League and a 10-time All-Horizon League selection.
// UP NEXT
The NCAA Cross Country Championships will be held November 17 at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course in Madison, Wis., for those athletes that qualify to compete. In early December, the indoor track and field season will get underway for the Bearcats with the Hoosier Open on December 7 in Bloomington, Ind.
The University of Cincinnati cross country teams return to Terre Haute, Ind., this week as the Bearcats will join runners from 33 other programs to compete in the 2018 NCAA Great Lakes Region Championships on the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course Friday. The meet, hosted by the NCAA and Indiana State, will see the women run in a 6,000m race starting at 11:15 a.m. with the men's 10,000m run following at 12:15 p.m. The meet, one of nine being held around the nation Friday, will be utilized to determine the teams and individuals that will qualify to Madison, Wis., on November 17 for the 2018 NCAA Cross Country Championships.
// FOLLOW US
For up to the minute updates, follow UC Track & Field/Cross Country (@GoBearcatsTFXC) on Twitter, Facebook (GoBearcatsTFXC) and Instagram (GoBearcatsTFXC) and join in the conversation by using the hashtag #Bearcats.
// QUICK SPLITS
• The Bearcats placed 5th (men) and 8th (women) in the AAC Championships that were held Thursday, October 25, in New Orleans
• Aaron Bienenfeld led the way for the men by finishing 3rd and earned all-conference honors
• Bienenfeld has raced four times in 2018 and placed in the Top 9 in all four events
• Sammy Hentz was the top finisher for the women as she placed 40th overall
• Friday's meet will be the second of the year the Bearcats have run in Terre Haute, Ind., after competing in the John McNichols Invitational on September 15
• This week's race will be the first 10,000m event of the year for the men after primarily running 8,000m races throughout the season (women will run 6,000m once again)
// THE STAKES
The Great Lakes Region meet is one of nine regional competitions that will be held around the nation this week as a selection tool for the NCAA Championships. Along with crowing team and individual champions at each site, the teams that finish first and second at each region will automatically earn berths into the NCAA Championships (18 teams) with the NCAA adding 13 more squads from around the nation as at-large selections for 31 total teams running. Individually, the Top 4 runners from each of the nine regions that are not members of qualifying teams will be invited to compete with the NCAA adding two at-large selections for 38 total runners. At-large selections will only be made from the pool of runners finishing in the Top 25 of their respective regional race.
// RESULTS
Live.TimingMD.net will provide live results of both races Friday. Full and complete results from the meet will be posted there as well as on NCAA.com and GoBearcats.com following the action.
// ON THE AIR
FloTrack.com will stream both races in Terre Haute live Friday. The stream is subscription based.
// WHO'S IN?
The list of teams set to compete in the Great Lakes Region event includes 34 women's teams and 31 men's. Both fields will feature five teams that are currently ranked in the national Top 30 of the USTFCCCA rankings including men's teams Wisconsin (3), Notre Dame (10), Purdue (15), Indiana (23) and Michigan (27) and women's teams Michigan (7), Michigan State (10), Wisconsin (11), Indiana (14) and Notre Dame (18). In the men's event, five conference championship teams will run, including Wisconsin (Big Ten), Notre Dame (ACC), Miami (MAC), Dayton (A-10) and Youngstown State (Horizon) while two women's team champions are set to line up including Michigan (Big Ten) and Eastern Michigan (MAC).
// BACK AGAIN
Friday's meet will mark the second time the Bearcats have raced in Terre Haute this year as UC took part in the John McNichols Invitational on September 15 on the same course they will run this week. In their second meet of the season, the Bearcats men placed 4th overall and the women 8th as they raced 8,000m and 5,000m distances, respectively. Aaron Bienenfeld made his collegiate cross country debut and placed fourth overall while Hannah Markel was the top UC woman in 31st place.
// RECAP: AAC CHAMPIONSHIPS
Run in continual rain and on sloppy grounds in New Orleans, the Bearcats men finished fifth overall and the women eighth at the 2018 AAC Championships October 25. The men had three individuals finish in the Top 26 with Aaron Bienenfeld leading the way with his third-place showing while Nick Grismer placed 20th and Andrew Schille 26th. On the women's side, Sammy Hentz led the charge with a 40th-place showing as UC's five scoring runners finished within 40 seconds of one another. With their team finish, the Bearcats women have earned a pair of Top 8 finishes in the past three years, its best showing since a trio of Top 8 finishes from 2002-04.
// ALL-CONFERENCE HONORS
With his bronze medal, Bienenfeld earned all-conference honors, the first for the men since the 2016 season saw both Toby Loveridge (7th) and Dan Huben (13th) post Top 15 finishes. In just his fourth collegiate race, Bienenfeld earned his fourth Top 10 finish and his third Top 4 finish of the year while posting the best finish for a UC runner in the AAC era (since 2013). He also posted the best finish in a conference finish for the men since Eric Finan won the 2011 BIG EAST title while becoming the 26th man since 1980 to earn all-conference honors as he secured the 46th accolade in that time.
// RECENT REGIONAL HISTORY • WOMEN
Last year, the women placed 21st in the Great Lakes Region Championships to either improve or maintain their regional finish for the fifth year in a row after posting finishes of 29th, 28th, 24th and 21st before last year. To date, five women have placed in the Top 25 in the regional championship race with the most recent addition coming in 2008 with Lilian Jelimo adding her name to the list.
// RECENT REGIONAL HISTORY • MEN
The men placed 21st last year in the regional meet, slipping outside of the Top 20 for just the second time in the last five years. To date, six individuals (since 1980) have finished among the Top 25 in the regional meet with Kevin Fink the most recent to do so a the 2014 championships. UC has had one champion in the regional competition with Eric Finan winning the 2010 event.
// QUALIFYING FROM THE REGION
Andrew Schille returns to the regional competition for the third time in his career, but the first with the Bearcats. Schille raced at the NCAA Southeast meet each of the last two years with Northern Kentucky and was nearly a two-time Top 25 finisher as he was 22nd last year (29:40.9) after taking 27th (30:13.3) one year prior.
PREVIOUSLY NOTED
// NO STRANGERS TO WINNING
Entering the meet this week, the Bearcats men boast two individuals that have previously won conference titles in Aaron Bienenfeld and Andrew Schille. Bienenfeld, who joined the program in January, is the reigning 10,000m outdoor track champion in the AAC. Schille, who joined the program as a graduate transfer in August, won the 2017 Horizon League cross country title to add to his collection of crowns indoors (mile and 5,000m in 2018) and out (1,500m in 2017).
// REGIONALLY RANKED
Earlier this season, the UC men were ranked in the Great Lakes Region for the first time since Week 6 of the 2016 season when they received back-to-back #13 rankings. Dating back to the start of the rankings in 2008, the UC men have been ranked 36 times with their #8 standing in the preseason and Week 1 of the 2011 season being their highest.
// FEELING HONORED
Aaron Bienenfeld tackled the 8,000m course at E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Ky., September 29 and placed ninth overall in the field of 252 runners in the gold race at the Greater Louisville Classic. That run not only saw him cross the finish line in 23:56.8 for his second Top 10 finish of the year, it also earned him the AAC Male Cross Country Athlete of the Week award, the first of his career and the second earned by the UC men so far this year. Bienenfeld's time in Louisville was a 1:04.4 improvement his first 8,000m collegiate race run two weeks prior at the John McNichols Invitational and made him the first UC man to break 24 minutes on an 8k course since Evan Baum ran 23:42.5 at the 2013 AAC Championships in Madison, Conn., finishing sixth overall in the inaugural meet.
// ADDING TO THE HAUL
With his honor earned from the AAC, Bienenfeld becomes not only the second UC man to be honored this year, but also just the second in the history of the program since the Bearcats joined the AAC in 2013 with Andrew Schille being the first. The duo are the first Bearcats to capture a weekly award for the program since 2011 when Eric Finan was named the BIG EAST Cross Country Runner of the Week on October 18 after placing third at the highly-competitive NCAA Pre-National meet.
// BIG IMPROVEMENTS • WOMEN
All season, the women have been posting PRs with three large improvements earned at the Bradley Pink Classic last week. Despite the muddy, wet and sometimes snowy conditions, the trio of Sydney Hess, Sammy Hentz and Hannah Markel each recorded big PRs. Hess improved her 6,000m time by 1:15.9 while Hentz and Markel saw improvements of 33.8 and 22.8, respectively. Katrina Patterson also has been showing big improvements all year as her three 5,000m races ahead of Bradley have netted an improvement of 1:28.5.
// BIG IMPROVEMENTS • MEN
The men also have seen several of their runners post big improvements this year with many of those marks coming at the Greater Louisville Classic where six individuals posted improvements of 40 seconds or more. Leading the way were a pair of freshmen in Christian Stevens and Keifer Mosmeier, who improved over their times from the McNichols Invitational by 1:08 and 1:06.1, respectively. Aaron Bienenfeld posted an improvement of 1:04.4 while Matt Stump's improvement was 52.5. The other two big improvements came from Toni Banos and Ryan Guenthner, who lowered their times by 43.7 and 40.9, respectively.
// MORE ON SCHILLE'S WIN
Schille's win brought a bit of history with it as he became just the second man to win the QCI three times in a career, joining former UC All-American Eric Finan with three crowns. Schille's third win also made him the first runner to win for two different teams as he won the past two running for Northern Kentucky before graduating and joining the UC program this fall. His win was the 19th for a UC runner and the first since 2011 when Finan captured his third in the 2011 race.
// ANOTHER FIRST
Schille was not done with history there, however. Following the meet, he was selected as the American Athletic Conference Men's Cross Country Athlete of the Week. He is the first UC runner (man or woman) to collect a weekly award from the AAC since the league was founded in 2013. Going back to previous conference affiliations, Schille is the first UC athlete to earn a weekly award since Finan was named the BIG EAST Runner of the Week on October 18, 2011.
// NEW TO THE TEAM - WOMEN
The newest additions to the women's roster this year include five true freshmen and one redshirt sophomore. The five freshmen include Maggie Breitenstein (Cincinnati/St. Ursula), Leah Maschino (Maineville, Ohio/Kings), Janey McManus (Huntsville, Ala./Grissom), Madalyn O'Dea (Louisville/Christian Academy) and Rylee Penn (Corona, Calif./Centennial). The final newcomer is Ellee Bullock (Dublin, Ohio/Jerome). Bullock has been a member of two collegiate tennis programs, starting her career at Utah State before transferring to UC in time for the 2017-18 season.
// NEW TO THE TEAM - MEN
The men's newcomers include a mix of three true freshmen, one sophomore, one junior and one graduate senior. The rookies include Toni Banos (Spain), Keifer Mosmeier (Laurelville, Ohio/Logan Elm) and Christian Stevens (Indianapolis/Brebeuf Jesuit), with Jack Cordonnier (Morrow, Ohio/St. Xavier) joining as a sophomore after running for the UC Running Club last year. The final two newcomers have had great success in college already, including Aaron Bienenfeld (Germany), who joined the UC program in time for the 2018 track & field season in which he won the AAC 10,000m outdoor title, and Andrew Schille (Cincinnati/Oak Hills), a graduate transfer from NKU where he was a four-time champion in the Horizon League and a 10-time All-Horizon League selection.
// UP NEXT
The NCAA Cross Country Championships will be held November 17 at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course in Madison, Wis., for those athletes that qualify to compete. In early December, the indoor track and field season will get underway for the Bearcats with the Hoosier Open on December 7 in Bloomington, Ind.