Columbus, Ohio – In their second meet of the season, the University of Akron women’s cross country team earned a second-place finish, and the men ended in third at the Buckeye Invitational on Friday afternoon.

Coming off of a second-place effort at the Tommy Evans Invitational last weekend, freshman Sediah Erskine (Cleveland, Ohio /Rhodes HS) covered approximately three miles in 18:26 to earn a third-place finish. Fellow Zip, Heidi Gross (Mansfield, Ohio/Lexington HS) crossed the finish line four seconds back of Erskine (18:31) to finish in fourth.

Collen Moran (Poland, Ohio /Poland Seminary), who won the Tommy Evans Invitation three-mile race last weekend, finished in seventh place with a time of 18:38.

“It was a very positive event for us,” women’s cross country coach Scott Jones said. “However, we still have some learning to do in order to put a complete race together, but we did finish strong. Our top-three runners did an excellent job and now we need to get our fourth and fifth runners up to join that group.”

The Zips controlled spots 14 through 17 on the results list with Gina DiAntonio (Stow, Ohio/Stow-Munroe Falls HS) clocking in at 19:36, Jenny Richardson (Newark, Ohio/Newark Catholic HS)  at 19:37, while Holly Sumser (Bellevue, Ohio /Bellevue HS) and Brittany Doherty (Grove City, Ohio/Central Crossing) posted an identical time of 19:40.

The host school Ohio State won the event with 23 points, followed by Akron with 43 points and Kent State with 61 points.

Jason Headman (Ashtabula, Ohio/Edgewood HS), who won the Tommy Evans Invitational last weekend, led the men with a fifth-place finish, covering approximately 4.25 miles in 22:13, 13 seconds back of the winner.

Ricky Weisheimer (Lakewood, Ohio/Lakewood HS) (23:09) edged teammate Craig Rupe (Cortland, Ohio/Maplewood HS) (23:11) by two seconds as they finished 15^th and 17^th respectively.

“Everything is starting to come around for us,” men’s cross country Joe Klim said. “Our top group performed well against much tougher competition then we saw last week, but we are still looking for a solid 5^th-guy to step up. The guys are starting to get accustomed to the different things I have been throwing at them and I am starting to see the effects. We will continue to go on as scheduled and look to improve each meet.”

Jeff Swartzel (Canal Fulton, Ohio/Northwest HS) clocked in at 23:17 and Mike Baraona (Avon Lake, Ohio/Avon Lake) posted a mark of 24:14 to end 18^th and 19^th respectively.

The Buckeyes won the event with 20 points, followed by Kent State (41) and Akron (74).

The Zips will return to the terrain on Friday, Sept. 29, at the Norte Dame Invitational.