Panther Harriers 2nd At SIU Invite

Brad Butler leads EIU to second place finish

 

CARBONDALE, Ill. – Eastern Illinois men’s cross country turned in a solid performance as the Panthers placed second at the SIU Saluki Invite on Saturday morning. Meanwhile the EIU women placed fifth at the Saluki Invite.

Brad Butler led a strong group of EIU men’s runners as he placed 10th with a time of 26:07.40.Derek Ericson and Aaron Iaun were close behind to score points at No. 14 and No. 15 as the Eastern Illinois men combined to score 86 points good for second place. 

Host Southern Illinois domisteeplewebd the field scoring the first six runners of the race including overall winner Jeff Schimer with a time of 24:47.49. The Panthers did dispatch two current Ohio Valley Conference schools and one future member. SIU won the race with 15 points with SIU Edwardsville third at 93 points. Southeast Missouri was fourth with 131 points and Murray State was sixth with 184 points.

 On the women’s side Erin O’Grady was the top performer with a time of 19:29.60 good for 15th place. Brittany Arthur was 20th and Jenna Wise 24th rounding out the EIU top three finishers. EIU as a team combined for 108 points to finish fifth in the field.

 Kayla Brown of SIU Edwardsville was the overall winner with a time of 18:18.34 as the Cougars finished in fourth place with 93 points.

 SIU won the event with 34 points just edging Murray State with 38 points. SEMO was third with 85.

 The Panthers will return to action on Friday afternoon at the Notre Dame Invite.