Butler Finishes Sixth At Panther Invite

CHARLESTON, Ill. – Battling humid weather conditions and a rain soaked competition course 161 runners competed in Friday night’s Eastern Illinois Panther Invite with Southern Illinois capturing both the men’s and women’s team titles.

The Charleston area was hit by heavy rain for most of the day Friday letting up just about two hours prior to the start of the women’s race at 5:30 p.m. Southern Illinois easily won the women’s title scoring 18 points with their runners placing first, second, third and fifth among the collegiate competitors. Western Illinois was second with 54 points while Evansville edged Southeast Missouri by one point for fourth. SIU Edwardsville was fifth followed by host Eastern Illinois in sixth. Danville Area CC was seventh while McKendree University did not enter enough runners for a team score.

Sophomore Caitlin Napoleoni was the Panthers top finisher in 23rd place with a 5K time of 19:54.08. She was followed closely by freshman Jenna Wise in 25th place at 20:02.80 and junior Erin O’Grady was 27th with a time of 20:05.11.

Beth Whalen won the event running unattached with a time of 18:12.84. Megan Hoelscher of SIU was the top collegiate finisher in second with a mark of 18:30.18. She was followed by teammates A’Seret Dokubo in third and Emily Toennies in fourth. Kayla Brown of SIU Edwardsville was fifth followed by Sophy Yapsabila in sixth from McKendree.

On the men’s side the Salukis also picked up a comfortable win scoring 23 points while Southeast Missouri was second with 57 points. Host EIU was third with 102 points followed by Evansville, Western Illinois, SIU Edwardsville, Danville Area CC and Illinois Cross Country Club.

Senior Brad Butler was the top Panthers finisher crossing in the top ten with a time of 25:45.58 which was good for sixth place. Ryan Hoklas was the second best Panther runner finishing in 19th place with a time of 26:30.74. Aaron Iaun placed 24th to round out the top three EIU runners. Iaun posted a time of 26:51.56.

Jeff Schirmer of Southern Illinois repeated as the Panther Invite champion with a time of 25:14.29 which was two seconds off his winning time from 2007. Dan Dunbar of SIU was second at 25:18.16 followed by Mathew Kotut of Danville Area CC. Brandon Karcher of SEMO was fourth with SIU’s Bowman in fifth and EIU’s Butler in sixth.

Eastern Illinois will be off next week before returning to action on Sept. 27 at the SIU Saluki Invite.