By Blake Nash/Staff Reporter Daily Eastern News

The men’s and women’s cross country season begins with the Walt Crawford Open this Friday.

The event will take place at the EIU Panther Trail with the women’s meet beginning at 4:45 p.m., and the men’s meet following at 5:45 p.m.

The Division I teams that will be competing include Evansville, Southern Illinois, and Ohio Valley Conference foes Murray State, and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville.

Those five teams, including Eastern, will compete in dual scoring for the meet. Other area junior colleges will also be competing Friday.

The Panther men return several veteran runners including senior Pablo Ramirez and junior Bryan Basting. Basting was also named First Team All-OVC in 2012, while Ramirez placed fifth at the OVC Championships with a time of 24:37.43 — 20th on Eastern’s career list.

Meanwhile, the women return senior Gaby Duenas-Delaney, who red-shirted the 2012 season. However, she did run every event in the 2011 cross country season.

Duenas-Delaney earned First Team All-OVC in 2010 as a sophomore and a Second Team All-OVC as a junior in 2011—the same season Eastern won its last conference championship.

Coach Erin Howarth believes that those three have the potential to have an even greater season this year.

“They’ve all put it in an incredible summer of mileage and good hard workouts,” Howarth said. “Their first two weeks have been solid.”

Howarth also sees incredible potential from this year’s freshman class.

“We have freshman on the women’s side that could go one through five for us, that is how talented and devoted they are to us,” Howarth said. “On the men’s side, we have a solid five freshman that have already brought a lot of energy and laughter to the team, including Riley McInerney and Paxson Menard.”

To Howarth though, the freshman year is not about succeeding, but more about learning and growing. “We simply ask that the freshman do everything right, learn from everyone around them, and take in every single detail they are taught,” Howarth said.

With the competition improving this year, Howarth realizes with conference meets approaching, that her team needs to be 100 percent on board and ready will full force and courage.

The Eastern Kentucky men’s team, who have won the OVC Championship seven consecutive years and 21 times total, was tabbed to win the OVC again this season. The Colonels are currently ranked No. 11 in the entire nation.

The Eastern Kentucky women’s team was also picked to finish first in preseason polls. The women have won 26 OCV Championships all-time.

“I have nothing but the utmost respect for all our conference opponents,” Howarth said. “Every year each team gets better. We have to always keep them on our radar and recognize where they are strong, and more importantly where they are weak.”