Josh Richardson (SR/Springfield, Ohio) of the Mount Vernon Nazarene University men’s cross country team has been selected as the Crossroads League Runner of the Week for his performance at the Ohio Wesleyan University Invitational this past Saturday.

Richardson, a senior from Springfield, Ohio, turned in an impressive performance as he finished fourth in a field of 100 runners. Richardson recorded a time of 26:36.2 which was just under 10 seconds off of the first place pace. Richardson was also less than a minute off of his personal best time of 26:05.7, which he set at the All-Ohio Invitational in 2014. Richardson earned Crossroads League Runner of the Week honors twice in 2014.

Richardson helped guide the team to a fourth place finish in the first meet of the 2015 campaign at the OWU Invitational. The Cougars recorded a team time of 2:19:15, putting them a few seconds ahead of NCAA Division II Ohio Dominican.

The Cougars will be back in action on Saturday as they head to Gambier, Ohio for the Kenyon College Invitational.

For the second consecutive week, Marlowe Beatty (SR/Dalton, Ohio) of the Mount Vernon Nazarene University volleyball team has been selected as the Crossroads League Defender of the Week. Beatty helped guide the Lady Cougars to three wins last week, including a 3-0 victory over Grace College (Ind.) to open the Crossroads League schedule.

Beatty, a senior from Dalton, Ohio, accumulated 51 more digs last week, including 21 against Grace and 22 versus Wilmington in helping lead MVNU to three more victories and an 8-0 record to start the year. She also had 47 receptions with just two errors and also chipped in on offense with a pair of aces.

Beatty averaged 5.67 digs, 5.22 receptions, and 4.22 serves per set last week. On the season, Beatty owns 122 digs and ranks 18th in the NAIA with 5.3 digs per set.

MVNU will be back on the court Wednesday night at Huntington University (Ind.) for another Crossroads League contest at 7:00 PM.