By: Chris Behler

After two top 20 finishes at regionals this past season (men–19th and women–13th), both the men and women’s teams are looking to pick up right where they left off.

Leading the women this year will be twin sisters Clare and Abby Fischer; both of whom earned their places in the Xavier history books at regionals with fastest times in the 6K, 21:22 and 21:34 respectively.

In addition to finishing in the top 15 last season, six out of the seven women met their 2nd team goal, which was to top each of their personal bests in the 6K. This is particularly exciting to see, considering that these six runners will be returning to compete this season.

Even more so, all of these seven runners’ regional times fell within two minutes of one another’s making for a team that is as consistent as they come.

The Xavier men have a promising season in the works as well. They will be led by senior All-Regional Tom Ohlman, who finished 20th overall with a time of 31:40 in last year’s regionals. With this finish, Ohlman landed himself the fourth spot in the fastest 10Ks in Xavier history.

While the men are losing last year’s team captain Hank Geer (8th all-time on Xavier’s 10K list) and seniors Ben Foley and Matt Coniglio, the team still possesses very promising talent in current senior Spencer Liechty, sophomore Austin Winter and juniors Corey Zielinski and Connor Buchholz.

The first meet of the year will be the Flyer 5K. This event takes place on Aug. 31 in Kettering, Ohio and will be an exciting start to an auspicious season.