In their first meet of the season, the men’s team finished third out of six teams at the Shawnee State University Invitational to earn a trophy in its very first race. The women’s team also did well with a fourth-place finish out of five teams.

The next race for the teams was the Cedarville University Invitational, where the men finished 11th out of 13 teams and the women finished 12th out of 15 teams. The following week, the men finished 10th out of 12 teams while the women were 10th out of 11 teams.

After a week off, both teams competed in the All-Ohio Meet hosted by Ohio Wesleyan University. The Cougars finished 35th out of 42 teams, while the Lady Cougars came in 36th out of 38 teams at the state’s largest race in which every college and university regardless of size was invited.

The final regular-season meet of the year for MVNU came at the Wilmington College Invitational as the men’s team finished 10th out of 15 teams, while the women’s team was 13th out of 15 teams.

At that point, the teams switched their focus to the postseason with two big races left on the schedule. At the American Mideast Conference/NAIA Region IX Meet hosted by Tiffin University, the men’s team came in 11th out of 15 teams, and the women’s team was 11th out of 14 teams as nearly every runner posted their best time of the season for MVNU.

Then, the teams closed out their seasons at the National Christian College Athletic Association Meet hosted by Cedarville. The Cougars finished 13th out of 22 teams, while the Lady Cougars came in 14th out of 22 teams on a very muddy course.

“Coming into this season, I was unsure of what to expect,” said MVNU head coach Chip Wilson, who was making his collegiate coaching debut this year. “We compete in one of the toughest conferences in the nation, and this being our first season I wanted to compete as well as we could. I quickly felt very confident in our team after our team camp in Hocking Hills. We had some very tough workouts and it was easy to see that I had a hard-working group. They battled through conditioning during the days and really came together as a team during our camp. I knew this was a start to a great season.”

“I feel blessed to have had such a great group to get this program started again,” Wilson added. “I never dreamed that we would compete as well as we did. This first-year team was full of leaders who were constantly encouraging one another and motivating each other to be great runners and students. Aside from running, our teams set a great foundation for success in the classroom, too. Our women’s team had four NAIA and NCCAA Scholar-Athletes and they were nominated for the NCCAA national team grade point average award which is a tremendous honor.”

On the men’s side, freshman Mark Porostosky led the Cougars in each race throughout the season. His best race came at the AMC/NAIA Region IX Meet when he ran a school-record 26:58 to come within 30 seconds of qualifying for the NAIA National Meet.

Freshman Zach Tuggle showed great improvement throughout the season and lowered his personal best to 28:09 by the end of the year. Freshman Dustin Wine (28:59), freshman Chris Au (29:26), sophomore Tim Grubb (29:36), sophomore Brandon Steffee (32:07), and junior Ron Hook (32:33) also improved as the season went along.

On the women’s side, senior Lauren Hall set the pace for the Lady Cougars race in and race out. Her best race also came at the AMC/NAIA Region IX Meet when she covered the course in a school-record 21:11. Senior Sarah Parks (22:30), senior Jillian Headley (22:52), senior Amanda Watkins (23:25), sophomore Mallorey Newland (23:37), senior Brittany Dissinger (24:50), and senior Beth Wilson (26:27) all showed improvement as the year progressed. In addition, Hall, Headley, Watkins, and Dissinger were named to the NAIA and NCCAA Scholar-Athlete Teams.

“I believe we have set a standard for our future teams both on the course and in the classroom,” said Wilson. “We have many returning runners who will come into next season with some experience that they can pass down to our incoming freshmen. I look forward to next year, and we will continue to grow and learn as a team.”

With every runner eligible to return next season for the men’s team, the Cougars will have plenty of experience returning. Meanwhile, on the women’s side, Wilson will be hard at work recruiting new runners to replace the six seniors who laid the foundation for the success of the future teams.