Cross Country Set to Race in Louisville Saturday

// THE STARTING LINE
The University of Cincinnati cross country teams will travel south to Louisville, Ky., Saturday as both Bearcats squads are set to race in the 18th Live in Lou Cross Country Classic that will be held at E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park. The six-race event will see the UC women compete in the 'gold' 5,000m run at 10:15 a.m. while the men will compete in the 'blue' 8,000m run a 10:45 a.m.

// FOLLOW US
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// QUICK SPLITS
• The Bearcats return to competition for the first time since the Rhodes College Invitational two weeks ago (September 21) in Memphis
• Both teams remain in the latest USTFCCCA Regional Top 15 rankings with the men at #11 in the Great Lakes and the women at #15
• Aaron Bienenfeld was named the AAC Male Athlete of the Week (Sept. 24) after winning the Rhodes Invitational by over 11 seconds in his season debut
• All eight women that ran at Rhodes turned in PRs, including a giant 1:15.3 PR by Sydney Hess
• This year, the women have run in three meets and placed in the Top 3 in all three
• Transfer Ellie Leather has posted a PR in all three races run for UC while placing in the overall Top 5 in all three races as well
• The women's team added a new face this week with Lauren Kemper, a two-year member of the school's club running team, joining the Bearcats

// THE MEET
The 18th Live in Lou Cross Country Classic will feature six collegiate races leading off the day with three men's 8,000m runs and three women's 6,000m runs with both being broken down into gold, blue and silver races. The men's gold race leads things off at 9:30 a.m. The UC women will race at 10:15 a.m. (gold) followed by the UC men in the blue race at 10:45 a.m.

// UPDATES
The meet will be streamed live on FloTrack.com (subscription required). Results for the meet can be found on the meet website (LouCrossCountryClassic.com) and will be posted on GoBearcats.com following the meet as well.

// THAT'S GREAT (LAKES)
According to the latest release of rankings from the USTFCCCA, both Bearcats teams are among the Top 15 in the Great Lakes Region once again this week as both remained where they placed two weeks ago. The men maintained their #11 ranking while the women held fast at #15.

// THE COMPETITION • WOMEN'S GOLD
The women's gold race has 40 teams listed on the entry sheet, including two teams listed just ahead of the Bearcats in the latest USTFCCCA Great Lakes Region rankings, including #11 Xavier and #14 Ball State (UC is #15). Also racing will be fellow AAC foe Memphis. Additionally, three smaller division schools that are currently ranked in the USTFCCCA national rankings will be racing this week as well, including Wayne State (Division II #19), Roberts Wesleyan (DII #24) and Johns Hopkins (DIII #1).

// THE COMPETITION • MEN'S BLUE
The Bearcats men will be among 83 teams scheduled to run in the blue which features numerous NCAA Division III teams who are using the meet to preview the course that will be used for the 2019 NCAA Division III Championships later this fall. Similar to the women, several ranked teams will be in the race with 11 of the USTFCCCA Division III Top 35 represented. The ranked teams included #1 North Central (Ill.), #3 UW-La Crosse, #9 Johns Hopkins, #11 MIT, #14 Otterbein, #16 RPI, #18 Case Western & Emory (tie), #23 John Carroll, #28 Berea and #34 Connecticut College.

// TOEING THE LINE
Ten women and five men will race for the Bearcats Saturday morning. The women will send the following individuals to the starting line: Ellee Bullock, Sydney Hess, Lauren Kemper, Leah Maschino, Sam Mikula, Madalyn O'Dea, Katrina Patterson, Rylee Penn, Olivia Tyre and Maddie Walker. On the men's side, UC will be represented by Jonathan Harley, Jase Headings, Matt Hoak, Christian Stevens and Matt Stump.

// NEW FACE
If the name Kemper is not familiar, that would be because she was added to the team this week. A two-year member of the UC Running Club, Kemper was the National Intercollegiate Running Club Association (NIRCA) national runner-up at 1,500m last spring and recently ran a PR 18:33 in the 5,000m run at the Friendship Invitational in Cedarville, Ohio.

// PREVIOUSLY AT LOUISVILLE
The Bearcats raced in Louisville last year (September 29) with the men placing eighth overall in the gold race and the women 19th in the same. The men placed two runners in the Top 15 with Aaron Bienenfeld placing ninth overall in a PR of 23:56.8 while Andrew Schille was 12th in a PR 24:06.1. On the women's side, Hannah Markel was the top finisher for the Bearcats as she placed 69th overall.

// LAST TIME OUT • RHODES INVITATIONAL
The last time the Bearcats were on the course was at the Rhodes Invitational in Memphis, Tenn., on the Shelby Farms Course, the same venue that will host the AAC Championships in three weeks time. In the meet, the women were second overall with 67 points behind only Tulsa (21) while the men were fifth overall with 138 points behind #30 Tulsa (20), Memphis (63), Arkansas State (109) and Emory (117).

// RACE WINNER
Bienenfeld captured his first collegiate title by running the 8,000m course in 24:10.1, bettering his previous best finish of third at last year's AAC Championships. The time also stands as his second-best collegiate time behind the 23:56.8 that he ran in Louisville last year.

// FEELING HONORED
Following the weekend win, Bienenfeld was selected as the AAC Male Athlete of the Week, earning the weekly accolade for the second time in his career with the first coming after last year's run at Louisville. The award is the third earned by the UC men in the past two years after Andrew Schille earned the honor following his victorious run at the Queen City Invitational that opened the season. Prior to that, no UC runner (male and female) had won a weekly accolade from the American.

// TOP 25
Along with Bienenfeld, two other men finished in the Top 25 of their race with Ryan Guenthner and Tyler Wirth placing 17th and 23rd, respectively. Guenthner raced to a time of 25:18.9 while Wirth, a true freshman, finished his first 8,000m race in 25:33.4.

// RUNNING TOGETHER
Similar to past meets this year, the women continued to run with a pack mentality as they had two in the Top 6, three in the Top 15 and all five of their scoring runners in the Top 25. Ellie Leather led the charge with a third-place showing (21:30.2) with freshman Maddie Walker (23:41.0) just behind her in sixth. The rest of the Top 25 finishers included Hannah Markel (21:55.3) in 15th, freshman Oliva Tyre (22:15.3) in 21st and Katrina Patterson (22:23.2) in 25th overall. Additionally, the Top 5 runners all finished within 53 seconds of one another while the Top 7 ran to a 1:16.5 spread.

// GETTING FASTER
All eight women in the race posted personal-best times, including the four first-timers running the 6,000m distance. Outside of that group, four others posted improvements, led by Sydney Hess, who lowered her time by 1:06.3 on the day. Joining Hess in the PR collection were Markel (20.8), Patterson (6.9) and Leather (5.2).

// TOUGH AS LEATHER
So far this year, Leather has raced three times for the Bearcats and finished in the Top 5 in all three races, including fifth at the Queen City Invitational, second at the Friendship Invitational and third at Rhodes. In each of those races, she also has lowered her PR. In the 5,000m, she entered the season with a best of 18:29.7 from last year with Fresno State that she lowered at Queen City (18:04.7) and then again at Friendship (17:38.1). In the 6,000m, her PR was 21:35.4 run last year with the Bulldogs before she ran 21:30.2 with UC.

// DEUCES WILD
Hess has continually posted improved times this year, as evident by the total accumulation of 2:22.2 in the 6,000m distance. She ran her first 6k at the All-Ohio Championships in 2017 and turned in a time of 25:08.9. Last year, she took 1:15.9 off that time by running 23:53.0 at the Bradley Pink Classic. This year, her first 6k came at Rhodes and saw her take 1:06.3 off her best.

PREVIOUSLY NOTED
// THE LAST TIME • TEAM VICTORY
The last time the women won a team title came in 2010 when they won the Queen City Invitational at Voice of America MetroPark in West Chester. That day, the Bearcats scored 34 points to edge Xavier (47) and claim the team title. Individually, the Bearcats had four runners in the Top 10 with Michele McKenney winning (18:04.0) and Lilian Jelimo (18:16.0) second. Also in the Top 10 where Alison Zukowski (18:31.0) and Jill Glassmeyer (18:48.0) in fourth and 10th, respectively.

// THE LAST TIME • INDIVIDUAL VICTORY
Markel's win was the first for the women since the 2011 VMI Relays, an event that saw individuals race the 5,000m course and two teammates add their times together for a relay time. Zukowski was the overall individual winner in 17:34.0 and combined with Kaitlyn Meyer for the relay win (36:40.0).

// DEBUTS
Nine runners made their Bearcats debuts at the QCI on opening weekend, including eight freshmen and one junior transfer. On the women's side, six newcomers wore the black and red of UC for the first time, including Ellie Leather, a junior transfer from Fresno State. The remaining five newcomers were all freshmen and included Katie Engle, Anna Evans, Carmela Hennings, Olivia Tyre and Maddie Walker. On the men's side, the trio of newcomers all were rookies and included Matt Hoak, Ryan Pehlman and Tyler Wirth. The debut list grew by two more women at the Friendship Invitational as both Rylee Penn and Leah Maschino (both of whom are redshirt freshmen) raced on the cross country course for the first time for UC.

// 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 transfer 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 final meet of the regular season awaits the Bearcats in two weeks as they will venture to Terre Haute, Ind., and the Lavern Gibson Championship Course for the 2019 NCAA Pre-National Meet hosted by Indiana State. The meet, which will take place Saturday, October19, will be run on the same course that will play host to the NCAA Championships later this season. Similar to this week's meet, the Bearcats will learn their race assignments closer to the meet which, as of September 25, features 72 men's and 80 women's teams set to race.