Cross Country 2nd, 3rd At Evansvile Invite

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – In what amounted to a precursor to the Ohio Valley Conference cross country championships, Eastern Illinois had a strong showing on Saturday afternoon as the Panthers finished second and third at the Evansville Invite. The event featured six teams from the OVC with the EIU men placing first among OVC competitors while the women were second.

The women placed second overall at the Evansville Invite chasing Murray State. The Racers won the 12 team women’s event scoring 49 points while Eastern Illinois was second with 58 points. Southeast Missouri was fourth overall with 79 points as the next closest OVC challenger.

EIU, Murray State and SEMO had runners in the top five as Brittany Thune of Belmont was the overall winner with a 17:54.60 5K time. Katelyn Jones of Murray State was second followed by Monica Noble of SEMO and Taylor Crawford of Murray State. EIU redshirt freshman Olivia Klaus was fifth posting a time of 19:14.67.

Erin O’Grady and Brittany Arthur added top ten finishes for the Panthers with O’Grady in ninth and Arthur in tenth. O’Grady posted a time of 19:32.12 with Arthur crossing in 19:42.64.

EIU runners Danielle Dickman in 16th at 19:59.67 and Erika Ramos in 20th at 20:04.38 rounded out the Panthers top five that scored points. Britney Whitehead was 27th and Stephanie Peisker was 32nd to round out the top seven EIU runners.

On the men’s side EIU finished third overall with 95 points but was first among the six OVC schools entered in the field. SEMO was just behind the Panthers in fourth place with 97 points. Marshall won the event with 84 points followed by Marian College with 94 points. A total of 14 teams competed in the men’s event.

SEMO runners Jason Lumpkin and Chris Loseman placed second and third in the event but he next SEMO runner was back in 18th position. EIU’s top runner was Brad LaRocque who crossed in seventh place at 26:34.87 on the 8K course. Matt Schiffbauer of Marshall was the overall winner in 25:33.89.

Harrison Bueno was 12th with a time of 26:58.97 while Connor Kustief and Dave Holm each posted top 25 finishes. Kustief was 24th with a time of 27:16.99 while Holm was just behind in 25th at 27:17.89.

Mario Castrejon was the fifth Panthers runner scoring points as he finished in 30th place at 27:33.54. The remaining top seven runners for EIU were Matt Feldhake in 31st at 27:34.08 and Matt Dettloff in 34th at 27:38.06.

EIU will return to action on Oct. 31 for the 2009 OVC Cross Country Championships in Nashville.