Phillip, Schroff, Coaching Staff Garner OAC Cross Country Awards

12/2/2022 10:30:00 AM | By: Ryan Szczepinski, Staff Writer

The Blue Streaks raked in the postseason awards.

UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS -- Following an uber-successful 2022 campaign, John Carroll Cross Country has reeled in the awards.

The accolades follow a sweep of the 2022 Ohio Athletic Conference Championship for the second straight season.

Alex Phillip, Abby Schroff, and the JCU coaching staff all garnered awards for the Blue Streaks.

The first award that John Carroll won was OAC Men's Outstanding Performer, which to no surprise, was given to Alex Phillip.

The senior from Akron, Ohio became just the fifth runner in Division III history to win back-to-back National Championships after posting a 24:37.6 at Michigan State's Forest Akers Golf Course on November 19.

This is the second year in a row that Phillip won the award, as he won last year when the award was called the "Men's Cross Country Runner of the Year Award".

Phillip's other notable achievements from this season include winning the NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional Championship in a time of 23:56.7 to earn All-Region honors and lead the Blue Streaks to a first place team finish on November 12.

Phillip captured the 2022 OAC Championship by an impressive 23.4 seconds, earning first-team OAC honors and defending his OAC title from 2021. Phillips is now the only two-time OAC Championship winner in program history.

The second award granted to the Blue Streaks was OAC Women's Outstanding Freshman, which was awarded to Abby Schroff.

Schroff put together a rather impressive freshman campaign, which began with her posting a sixth place finish in her collegiate cross country debut at the Bill Sudeck Classic in a 4k time of 15:48.8.
She earned first team All-OAC honors with a sixth-place finish out of 113 conference competitors during the 2022 OAC Championships, finishing in a time of 23:21.2. Schroff made her mark as the top freshman finisher in the race.
Schroff recorded a PR of 21:46.4 at the 2022 NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional, placing 13th amongst 247 total runners. Schroff earned All-Region honors as the top freshman finisher, and bested her previous high water mark by over a minute.

The final two awards that John Carroll took home were both the OAC Men's and Women's Coaching Staff of the Year awards. This is the third year in a row that John Carroll has swept the Men's and Women's Coaching Staff awards.

Basista's crew captured the OAC Coaching-Staff-of-the-Year Award following the 2019 season as well as after last season in 2021. Head Coach Kyle Basista's staff has now won the Women's Coaching Staff of the Year five times and the Men's award for the third time.

Basista is assisted by Jordan Doore, along with Daniel Tutskey, and volunteer assistant Andrew Miner.

The JCU coaching staff led the Blue Streaks to a back-to-back OAC Championship on the men's side and a third straight OAC Championship for the women's team.

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