The Cardinal men's and women's track teams were determined not to fall behind the competition at the home turf invitational Saturday.
The women's track team finished first and the men finished second at the Greater Columbus meet.
The Greater Columbus Invitational was the first meet to be hosted in the Clements Center.
The Cardinals were definitely feeling comfortable at home, based on the high finishes from both men and women.
The women finished on top with 147 1/2 points (compared to the second-place Capital with 132 1/2). Finishing third with 128 points was Ohio Wesleyan, followed by Muskingum with 49 points.
It came as no surprise that the Otterbein women dominated the 55-meter hurdles once again.
The team swept the top three spots, along with fifth and sixth place.
Lauren Rausch, Kelli Peirano and Stacey Schall walked away with the gold, silver and bronze. Also placing at the top was Paris Anderson, who took fifth; Lisa Coleman took sixth.
"We are so lucky to have each other," said Rausch. "Not only are we teammates, but we all are actually really good friends, so that always makes practice fun for us, considering how doing the same thing day after day can become a bit monotonous."
The success of these women is starting to turn heads. "We have a hard-working group of hurdlers and we love what we do," said Peirano. "Our coach is amazingly dedicated and all of us push each other to reach our potential. We are often our biggest competition, which really helps each of us improve every day at practice."
Other standouts for the women included Kali Dudley, who placed first in the 300-meter dash and helped the 4 x 200-meter relay team finish fourth.
Senior Ashley Suffel finished first in the 800-meter run and freshman Jocelyn Hennon captured the top spot in the 500-meter dash.
The men's performance also left nothing to be ashamed of. The team walked away with second place overall. The Cardinals finished after Ohio Wesleyan--but with a firm foot clearly in front of Capital.
"We knew it was going to be tough to win the guys' side this year due to many illnesses, but we still came out for the fight," said senior Matt Kleinknech. "We had a lot of our guys compete very well and our team was the most supportive it has been this year."
The 4 x 400 relay team, which consisted of CJ Carroll, Ryan Kennedy, Kleinknecht and Alex Simko, came in a respectable second place. Simko's additional speed helped advance the relay team from third place to second.
Simko also took the first-place title for the 1000-meter run, with teammates Jared French and Tyler Congrove finishing close behind.
Not only did French finish as the runner-up in the 1000-meter run, but he also finished first in the one-mile run.
The Cardinals compete next at Kenyon this Friday at 6 p.m.
The teams will be returning home to host the fifth annual all-Ohio meet Saturday in the Clements Center, scheduled to begin at noon.
