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In a closely contested Ohio Valley Conference Cross Country Championship both Eastern Illinois men's and women's teams posted a fourth-place finish on Friday morning with the meet held at EIU's Tom Woodall Panther Trail.
 
The EIU men finished one point behind Southeast Missouri in fourth place with the Panthers scoring 97 points, one behind SEMO's 96 points.  UT Martin and Southern Indiana tied for first with 62 total points with the Skyhawks the overall champions by virtue of winning three of the five scored runners head-to-head finishes.
 
On the women's side Tennessee Tech won the women's championship with 60 points.  Three points separated places two through four with Southeast Missouri in second (79 pts), Southern Indiana in third (80 points) and Eastern Illinois in fourth (82 points).
 
EIU had four overall runners earn All-OVC honors based on their finishes.
 
Brenda Torres was a first team All-OVC performer as she was second in the women's race with a 6K time of 21:04.3.  It was the second best 6K time in school history less than a second behind Lindsey Carlson's school mark of 21:03.5 set in 2021.   Nova Ojutkangas of Southeast Missouri was the women's individual champion with a time of 20:57.1.  Rylea Borgic joined Torres with All-OVC honors collecting a second team honor with a 10th place finish.  Borgic had a 6K time of 21:39.9.
 
On the men's side Michael Atkins and Cale Smith both earned second team All-OVC honors.  Atkins was ninth in the race with an 8K time of 24:39.2  Smith placed 12th with a time of 24:45.0.  Luke Johnson of UT Martin was the individual champion with an 8K time of 24:18.9.
 
EIU's other top five scored men's runners were Tyler Dillon in 24th with a time of 25:21.7, Aidan Gonzalez in 25th with a time of 25:22.3 and Jiberil Lesman in 27th with a time of 25:25.3.
 
The Panthers other top five scored women's runners were Avery Braker in 21st with a time of 22:17.1, Sophie Krueger in 23rd with a time of 22:22.8 and Bella Marcum in 26th with a time of 22:29.0.
 
The remaining EIU men's competitors in the championship event consisted of Brad Ahrens (33rd / 25:35.9), Sebastian Myere (34th / 25:39.7), Mason Stoeger (51st / 26:19.6), Tony Pastore (63rd / 26:41.7) and Noah Schalliol (70th / 27:08.6).
 
EIU's remaining women's competitors in the championship event were Ashlyn Denney (33rd / 22:43.9), Chloe Proffitt (39th / 22:57.4), Anna Bieber (46th / 23:05.9), Julia Monson (61st / 23:40.1) and Kaitlyn Ward (78th / 24:37.6).