TIFFIN, Ohio – The Baldwin Wallace University women's cross country team placed fifth out of nine teams with 124 points in the Ohio Athletic Conference Championship meet at the Clinton Heights Golf Course, hosted by Heidelberg University.

Otterbein University won the OAC women's title with 51 points.

While the cold weather and wet conditions provided a unique challenge to the runners, the course at Clinton Heights was a mostly flat surface with slight hills and few obstacles for the runners as the men completed two 4k loops and the women ran two 3k loops of the course.

In the week leading up to the meet, head coach Joe Eby told his young teams to believe in themselves, their training and to take the next step forward toward competing at a higher level.

Sophomore Bella Pendola (Warsaw/River View) earned second-team All-OAC honors as the Yellow Jackets top finisher in 11th place with a 6k time of 23:07.6. Freshman Hastings Marek (Pataskala/Watkins Memorial) also earned second-team All-OAC honors with an 18th finish, the last spot to earn All-OAC honors, with a time of 23:33.3.

Freshman Madison Kile (North Canton/Hoover) finished 24th in her first career OAC Championship meet with a time of 23:48.6 while freshmen Rebecca Penrose (Springfield/Shawnee) and Molina Otte (Omaha, Neb./Millard West) rounded out the top five runners for the women. Penrose placed 35th with a 6k time of 24:26.1 and Otte set a new career-best with a time of 24:31.4, shaving 1:32 off her previous career-best time that was set at the Ohio Wesleyan Invitational.

Two weeks from now, seven runners from both the men's and the women's teams will compete at the NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional Championship in Delaware, Ohio, hosted by Ohio Wesleyan University. The Yellow Jackets will be familiar with the course after having run in the Ohio Wesleyan Invitational earlier in the season.

BW will next compete at the Great Lakes Regional Championship on Saturday, Nov. 11, hosted by Ohio Wesleyan.