Chillin' with a Polar Bear: Olesya Mertz

Ohio Northern women's cross country senior Olesya Mertz is a native of Johnstown, Ohio, and an alum of Johnstown-Monroe High School.

A one-year letter winner, Mertz is double majoring in political science and creative writing.

She has competed in 17 events in her ONU career and owns a career-best 6k time of 22:41, which she set at the SUNY Geneseo Mike Woods Invitational on Oct. 14.

Mertz has competed in all six events so far this year and has placed among ONU's top seven finishers in all of them.

She was the second Polar Bear to cross the finish line at the Ohio Athletic Conference Championships on Oct. 28, placing 12th overall with a time of 22:47 to earn All-OAC Second Team recognition and help lead ONU to a second-place finish in the team standings.

She had placed 53rd and 23rd in her sophomore and junior seasons, respectively, at the OACs.

As a junior, Mertz competed in six events, finishing among ONU's top seven runners in five of them.

Mertz is a two-year letter winner in track and field competing in the distance running events for ONU. She placed fifth in the mile run at the 2021 OAC Indoor Championships.