Cross Country: Running Toward the Top 10
The Ohio State cross country team, which has made huge strides under the direction of Coach Robert Gary, will be chasing a sixth NCAA championships appearance in the last seven years in 2006. Last season, OSU’s contingent set a school standard by placing 11th at the NCAA meet. This comes off a 22nd place finish in 2004. The team also placed second at the Big Ten championships in 2005.

Gary called last year’s NCAA performance “a great step for our program… I expect us to crack the Top 10 in the next couple of years.” Although the team no longer has the services of two-time All-American Brian Olinger, who has graduated, the team does return five performers who competed at the NCAA championships, including four of the five who scored points. It is a terrific foundation to build around.

Junior John Ealy placed 71st at the national meet last year to continue his impressive career at OSU. He was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 2004 and was 37th at the 2004 NCAA championships. Sophomore Jeff See completed a fine initial season with the team by placing 93rd at NCAAs. Senior Glenn Collins (115) and junior Braden Martinez (116) rounded out OSU’s scoring. Junior Alex Bailey also returns with NCAA experience.

Freshman Chad Balyo follows See as Ohio’s number one high school distance runner choosing to run at OSU. Last year as a high school senior, Balyo won the state Division I cross country championship, and he added indoor and outdoor 3,200-meter run state titles in 2006 as well. “I am excited about the 2006 cross country season,” said Gary, the 2005 Great Lakes Region Coach of the Year. “I look forward to guiding our men's program to making the next jump towards winning a Big Ten title as well as breaking into the Top 10 at the NCAA Championships.”

Soccer: Trying for an NCAA 3-Peat
Coach John Bluem enters his 10th season as coach of the Buckeyes in
2006 and there will be no shortage of experience for this team.
Seventeen Buckeye letterwinners return, including six seniors, from last
year’s team that went 11-8-2 and qualified for the NCAA championships
for the second-consecutive year and for the fourth time in the
last six seasons.

The team gained even more experience over the summer as it traveled to
Germany, the host country of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, for 10-days
worth of exhibition matches, attending World Cup games, team-building
exercises and, of course, sight-seeing. And the Buckeyes found time
to win their three exhibition matches by a combined score of 15-2.

“Memories from the trip will last a lifetime," OSU assistant coach Jon Lowery wrote in his blog for the Columbus Dispatch. “The experience of being in Germany during the World Cup was memorable. Day trips to the European Union capitol of Brussels, a trip to the World War II cemetery in Margraten, a free afternoon in Aachen and time at the massive cathedral in Cologne combined to give everyone a sense of history and appreciation for the areas visited.”

Leading the team this fall are returning all-Big Ten Conference picks and seniors Taylor Korpieski, Brent Rohrer, and Dustin Kirby. The team’s second and third-leading scorers also return: junior Xavier Balc and sophomore Danny Irizarry. Balc scored 18 points and was responsible for scoring or assisting on Ohio State’s last eight goals of the season. Sophomores Danny Irizarry and Geoff Marsh also return. Both played their way into the lineup last year and ended up sharing the team’s most improved player award.

The team’s 18-game schedule includes matches against seven teams that were NCAA tournament participants last season. The 2006 Big Ten championships will be decided at Ohio State's Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium in November.

“What we're trying to achieve here is consistency,” Bluem said. “We want to be in the NCAA tournament every year. Four of the last six is a good start.”