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2023 Walt Crawford Open Results

Mackenzie Aldridge and Adam Swanson both collected first place individual finishes to open the 2023 cross country season as Eastern Illinois hosted the Walt Crawford Open at the Tom Woodall EIU Panther Trail.
 
The EIU women placed first among four teams in the race while the Panther men placed second among four schools competing.
 
Aldridge led early for the EIU women as she won the 5K event with a time of 18:09.2, nearly fifteen seconds ahead of the runner-up Emma Gresham of Indiana State.  EIU would hold on to edge the Sycamores by three points with the Panthers placing runners five through nine in the scoring order in addition to Aldridge's win.
 
Swanson won the men's 8K with a time of 25:01.8, a six second margin over runner up Ethan Breen of Indiana State.  The Sycamores had a tight group at the top of the finish order to win the meet with 23 points followed by EIU with 36.  Vincennes University and Kaskaskia College were the other two full squads entered in both the men's and women's race.
 
Bella Marcum finished fifth in the women's race as EIU's second best runner with a time of 18:47.6.  She was followed by Brenda Torres, Kylie Haacke, Sarah Carr and Alex Gomez to round out the top six EIU women's runners.  Torres had a time of 18:53.0.  Haacke was in just under the 19-minute mark at 18:59.8.  Carr had a time of 19:03.9 with Gomez crossing at 19:16.1.  Kathryn Cichon was EIU's final scored runner in 14th place with a time of 19:21.4.
 
On the men's side Michael Atkins was EIU's second place finisher with a time of 25:33.2 as he crossed in fifth place.  EIU's remaining top five runners were Richie Jacobo in seventh (25:37.0), Mason Stoeger in 13th (26:24.5) and Joe Stoddard in 14th (26:28.2).  Noah Schalliol and Sam Nowak rounded out EIU's top seven finishers.  Schalliol was 15th with a time of 26:29.3 followed by Nowak in 16th at 26:31.3.