HARTVILLE, Ohio – Three All-Ohio Athletic Conference performances led the Baldwin Wallace University women's cross country team to a runner-up finish at the 2018 OAC Championships, hosted by the University of Mount Union at the Sable Creek Golf Course. 

BW was the runner-up of nine teams with 64 points while Otterbein University became four-time OAC champions with 59 points. The Yellow Jackets were able to hold off third-place Mount Union and fourth-place John Carroll University by three and four points, respectively. This year's runner-up finish is the highest BW has placed at the OAC Championship meet since 2010 when the Yellow Jackets tied for second. 

The top 18 runners at the meet earn All-OAC honors with one through nine receiving first-team accolades and 10-18 landing on the second team. 

Three All-OAC performers in junior Bella Pendola (Warsaw/River View), sophomore Madison Kile (North Canton/Hoover) and junior Kelly Brennan (Akron/Walsh Jesuit) paced the Yellow Jackets to their second-place finish. Pendola was BW's top runner with a sixth-place finish in a time of 23:35.2 to earn her first career first-team All-OAC honor. Kile was not far behind her teammate as she ran a time of 23:51.0 to take seventh place for her first career All-OAC honor. Brennan notched her third career All-OAC accolade with a 10th-place finish in 23:58.5. 

Rounding out the top-five runners were freshman Alyssa Laughner (Howard, Pa./Central Mountain) and sophomore All-OAC performer Hastings Marek (Pataskala/Watkins Memorial). Laughner and Marek finished just three seconds apart from each other in 20th and 21st place, respectively, in times of 24:15.1 and 24:18.4, respectively. 

BW will take this momentum from its runner-up finish to the 2018 NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional Championships, hosted by Franklin (Ind.) University on Saturday, Nov. 10, at Blue River Park in Shelbyville, Indiana.