Harriers Set to Open 2019 at Queen City Invite

// THE STARTING LINE
The 2019 cross country season gets underway this weekend as the University of Cincinnati runners will venture to Highland Heights, Ky., for the 38th Queen City Invitational Saturday morning. The event, which rotates between Cincinnati, Xavier and Northern Kentucky as hosts, returns to the Valhalla Course at NKU for the second year in a row as the Norse gear up to host the Horizon League Championships later this season. The first race of the day starts at 9 a.m. with the men's 5,000m run and will be followed at 9:30 a.m. with the women's 5,000m run.

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// QUICK SPLITS
• Both team's rosters feature just one senior this year with the men being led by Aaron Bienenfeld and the women by Hannah Markel
• Bienenfeld is coming off a huge season in which he was third at the AAC Championships, 12th at the NCAA Great Lakes Region and 111th at the NCAA Championships, the first UC runner to reach the national meet since 2011
• Markel was the top finisher for the women much of last year, including placing 87th in the regional competition
• The women's roster features 16 runners with more than half being new to the team, including one transfer, six true freshmen and two redshirt freshmen
• The men's roster has 12 runners with five newcomers, including three true freshmen, one redshirt freshman and one junior who ran the past two seasons with the University's club team

// THE COMPETITION
This year's event looks to feature runners from 11 schools, including many local institutions. The line-up features representatives from UC, Cincinnati Christian, Cleveland State, Dayton, Eastern Kentucky, Milwaukee, NKU, Ohio, Thomas More, Wright State and Xavier.

// 38th QUEEN CITY INVITATIONAL
The Queen City Invitational enters its 38th year after first being held in 1982 at the Winton Woods Golf Course. Cincinnati played host to the event for many years before the three area schools - UC, NKU and Xavier - came together to share hosting duties at the 2007 event. Since then, the trio has rotated host venues, ranging from Voice of America MetroPark, Kingswood Park, A.J. Jolly Park (Alexandria, Ky.) and now, Valhalla XC Course. 

// QUEEN CITY HISTORY • MEN
The Bearcats have won 18 of the team titles with their last coming in 2015. UC put together a string of wins from 2001 through 2008, a stretch of eight years in a row matched only by the UC women (2004-10). Indianapolis and Miami (Ohio) are second in the team title ledger with three victories each. Individually, the Bearcats have won 19 race titles with Andrew Schille winning the title last year, giving the graduate student three titles in a row, including the first two for Northern Kentucky as an undergraduate. Morehead State is second on the list with three while both NKU and Xavier are third with two titles.

// QUEEN CITY HISTORY • WOMEN
Similar to the men, the women also have won the most team titles in the history of the meet having captured 10 crowns with EKU second at seven and Xavier third with five. The last time UC won the women's title was in 2010, the eighth year in a row UC had claimed victory. Individually, the Bearcats have claimed 10 individual titles with Michelle McKenny's win in 2010 the last for UC's women. Eastern Kentucky is second on the individual crown list with five while six other schools have won two races each.

// QUEEN CITY HISTORY • COMBINED
Overall, the Bearcats have combined to win 28 team crowns and swept the men's and women's titles in the same season seven times. Individually, the Bearcats also have won 28 titles with EKU and Morehead State tying for second with five race wins each.

// SCHEDULE SCOUTING
The 2019 schedule features seven races for the women and six for the men with two each being in the postseason and a chance for one additional meet. Both teams will compete in the Queen City Invitational this week with only the women competing in the Friendship Invitational in Cedarville, Ohio, in two weeks. From there, the Bearcats both will travel to the AAC Preview in Memphis (Sept. 21), the Live in Lou XC Classic in Louisville (Oct. 5) and NCAA Pre-Nationals in Terre Haute, Ind. (Oct. 19) to close out the regular season. The championship portion of the year gets underway with the AAC Championships in Memphis November 1 and will be followed by the NCAA Great Lakes Region Championships November 15 in Madison, Wis. Those that qualify, either individually or as a team, would advance to the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind., November 23.

// NEW MEN
This year's newcomers on the men's side include true freshmen Matt Hoak (Mason, Ohio), Ryan Pehlman (Indianapolis) and Tyler Wirth (Hawley, Pa.) and Jonathan Harley (Granger, Ind.), a junior that ran the past two years with the UC Running Club. Additionally, redshirt freshman Jase Headings will be suiting up for the Bearcats in 2019.

// NEW WOMEN
The women, with a roster of 16 individuals, will see more than half as new additions in 2019. The six true freshmen set to race for UC this year include Jen Cooper (Maineville, Ohio), Katie Engle (Chagrin Falls, Ohio), Anna Evans (Mentor, Ohio), Carmela Henning (Medina, Ohio), Olivia Tyre (Troy, Ohio) and Maddie Walker (Batavia, Ohio). Additionally, both Leah Maschino and Rylee Penn will be coming off redshirt seasons this year and will be joined by junior transfter Ellie Leather, who raced at Fresno State the past two years.

// NEW NAME
Over the summer, the former Lara Crofford was wed and is back to coach once again, this time as Lara Rogers. The former standout distance runner at Nebraska and Shippensburg is entering her fifth season working with the UC women's cross country and mid-distance/distance runners on the track.

// NEXT TIME OUT
The Bearcats women will return to action in two weeks when they venture to Cedarville, Ohio, for the 29th Friendship Invitational on Saturday, September 14. The race, which will take place on the Elvin R. King Cross Country Course, will see the women run a 5,000m course with a start time of 10:15 a.m.