OVC Cross Country Championship Information |
OVC Record Book |
Live Results |
The 2017 Ohio Valley Conference Cross Country Championship will be run on Saturday at the Panther Trail Course in Charleston, Illinois. The men's 8K race will begin at 9:00 a.m. CT with the women's 5K following at 10 a.m.
It marks the first time Eastern Illinois has hosted the event since 2005. The meet is free and open to the public.
This will be the 57th OVC men's championship, as the first one was held in 1962. Eastern Kentucky has won the most OVC Championships (25), including the last 11 in a row and 12 of the last 13.
The women's championship will be determined for the 39th time this year. Eastern Kentucky has won 30 of the previous 38 championships, including each of the past five seasons.
The OVC Athletes and Freshmen of the Year, which are determined by coaches vote, will be announced on Friday night at an awards banquet while the Coach of the Year, Athletes of the Championship and All-OVC honors will be presented following Saturday's Championship.
Men's Preview
Eastern Kentucky, the 11-time defending champion, enters Saturday's race as the favorites and sit just outside the national rankings, unofficially at No. 31 (and ranking No. 5 in the competitive Southeast Region). The Colonels qualified for the NCAA Championship for five consecutive years (the second-longest stretch for a program in league history) before just missing out a season ago. Most recently, EKU is coming off a 19th place finish at the Wisconsin Nuttycombe Invitational. Junior Erick Rotich, the two-time defending OVC Runner of the Year, was 23rd at the Wisconsin meet. He earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Championship a season ago where he finished 105th (after placing 90th as a freshman).
Belmont enters the postseason ranked No. 8 in the South Region. The Bruins are coming off a strong performance at the Crimson Classic, finishing fifth in a field of 26 teams. Senior Matt Edwards was the team's top finisher at that meet (11th out of 253 competitors) while sophomore Kaleb McLeod has the squad's top 8K time of the year (24:17.97 at the Greater Louisville Classic). Belmont has finished in the Top 5 in each of its first five OVC Championships, including a second-place finish a year ago when it hosted the meet.
After finishing third at the OVC Championship a year ago, Morehead State has once again had a solid season that has the Eagles ranked No. 12 in the Southeast Region entering the OVC Championship. Sophomore Farah Abdulkarim earned OVC Runner of the Week honors earlier this season after finishing second (and being the first attached runner) at the Virginia Tech Alumni Invitational against a field that included a nationally-ranked team and several regionally-ranked squads. He finished fourth at the OVC Championship a season ago. Junior Justin Moakler will look to improve on his sixth-place finish at last year's OVC Championship.
A year ago, Tennessee Tech was fifth at the OVC Championship, its best finish since 2009. The team is led by sophomore Gilbert Boit, who was named OVC Freshman of the Year last season and then claimed the OVC Championship with a winning time of 24:20.9. This season he has earned a trio of OVC Runner of the Week awards, including two weeks ago when he smashed the TTU program record in the 8K (23:29.6) by 30 seconds at the Pre-Nationals Invitational; that time currently stands as the best 8K time in the OVC this season. Boit is looking to become the first repeat OVC Champion since EKU's Soufiane Bouchikhi won four-straight titles from 2010-13.
UT Martin earned its first-ever regional ranking this season and enter this week ranked No. 14 in the South Region. The Skyhawks are coming off a ninth-place finish at the Crimson Classic where sophomore Edwin Kurgat finished fifth overall. Kurgat, who was 11th at the OVC Championship last year, earned three OVC Runner of the Week honors this season and has the second-best 8K time in the league (23:40.96 at the Greater Louisville Classic). Last year's sixth-place finish for UTM was the best for the program since placing fifth in 2011.
Host Eastern Illinois has won seven OVC Championships with the last coming in 2005 prior to EKU starting its current string of wins. EIU is looking to become the first host to win the title since 2011 (EKU). Freshman
Dustin Hatfield has been the team's top finisher at all four of its events this season.
Murray State competed at the Pre-Nationals last time out and was led by senior Mark Ventura who set a new personal best in the 8K (25:17.6), placing 53rd overall. Ventura just missed out on All-OVC honors a season ago when he was 15th at the OVC Championship.
Sophomore Landon Skelly has been SIUE's top finisher each of its past two meets, including earning OVC Runner of the Week honors on October 10 after finishing fourth at the Bradley Invitational.
Southeast Missouri is looking to improve on a 10th place finish at last year's Championship. This season junior Curtis Reed has been the team's top finisher in each of its four meets, including placing 76th at the Bradley Pink Classic on October 13. Reed was 50th at the OVC Championship a year ago.
Junior Wesley Gray has been Austin Peay's top finisher at each of the past two OVC Championship meets, including placing 28th a year ago. At each of the past two meets, it has been senior Mathew Biwott who has led the team, including taking first place at the Evansville Invitational two weeks ago.
Jacksonville State sophomore Corey Champion earned OVC Runner of the Week honors on October 10 after establishing a career-best 8K time at the Florida State Invitational. He was the Gamecocks top finisher in the first five meets of the year before scratching from the Crimson Classic meet two weeks ago.
Tennessee State has been idle since running at the Greater Louisville Classic on September 30. Freshman Larry McNary has been the team's top finisher at each of its last two meets.
Women's Preview
Eastern Kentucky, who has won five-straight OVC crowns, enters the OVC Championship ranked No. 21 nationally, its first-ever national ranking in the USTFCCCA poll. The Colonels jumped into the rankings after a strong performance at the Pre-Nationals Invitational where they were eighth out of 43 teams (36 of which were regionally or nationally-ranked). EKU topped two nationally-ranked teams at that meet as junior Charlotte Imer finished fourth out of 288 competitors. Imer has won four OVC Runner of the Week awards this season and owns the top 6K (19:48.1) and 5K (16:36.07) time in the OVC. Imer was named OVC Runner of the Year last season, but finished second at the OVC Championship (after placing fifth as a freshman); she would go on to earn All-American honors after placing 31st at the National Championship.
Belmont enters the postseason ranked No. 10 in the South Region after a seventh-place finish at the Crimson Classic two weeks ago. The team has been led by senior Jessica King and sophomore Kortney Schardt this season. In five years as a member of the OVC, Belmont has a pair of second-place finishes, a pair of third-place finishes and a fifth-place finish.
A year ago, UT Martin recorded its second-highest finish ever at the OVC Championship, placing fifth overall behind the second-straight victory by Ann Asipan. Asipan has graduated, but the Skyhawks have continued to excel, including being regionally-ranked during the season. Sophomore Kara Martin has led UTM in each race this season, including netting the seventh-best 5K time in the OVC (17:46.6) at the Stegemoller Classic in Evansville. Martin placed 23rd at the OVC Championship as a freshman.
Eastern Illinois, the 2011 OVC Champions, had back-to-back runner-up finishes at the OVC Championship before finishing fourth a season ago. Senior
Maria Baldwin placed 26th at the Bradley Pink Classic in her last race two weeks ago; she owns Top 10 OVC times in both 5K and 6K distances this season. Baldwin has earned three consecutive All-OVC honors in her career placing 14th as a freshman, sixth as a sophomore and 12th a year ago. She is looking to become the first EIU runner to earn four-straight All-OVC honors since Olivia Klaus (2009-12). As a team EIU is looking to become the first host to win the meet since EKU in 1990.
For each of the past 25 years, the Southeast Missouri women's team has finished in the top half at the OVC Championship, including a second-place finish a season ago (matching its highest-ever place). Junior Kaitlyn Shea, the 2015 OVC Freshman of the Year, finished 13th at the OVC Championship a year ago and has been the Redhawks top finisher in each race this year. That includes winning the Walt Crawford Opener and Forest Park Festival meets to open the year.
Senior Meagan Smith has been Murray State's top finisher in each race this season, including at the Pre-Nationals Invitational in Louisville two weeks ago. Smith will be looking to improve on her 23rd place finish at the OVC Championship a season ago.
Tennessee Tech is looking to improve on its seventh-place finish at last year's OVC Championship, its best placement since tying for sixth when the program hosted the 2010 Championship. Freshman Purity Sanga recorded the fifth-best 5K time in the OVC this season (17:38.1) when she placed sixth at the Commodore Classic on September 15. Senior Micayla Rennick finished sixth at the OVC Championship a year ago; she suffered an injury and did not finish Tech's last race at the Pre-Nationals.
Sophomore Caitlin Cunningham has paced the Morehead State team in its last two races, including an 18th place finish at the Jenna Strong Classic two weeks ago. She finished 50th at the OVC Championship a year ago.
Senior Jess Clarke earned OVC Runner of the Week honors on October 10 after finishing second at the Bradley Invitational. Clarke was the third SIUE runner across the line at the 2016 OVC Championship, placing 39th overall.
Austin Peay is coming off a first-place finish at the Evansville Invitational, as junior Emmaculate Kiplagat was third overall in the 5K race. Kiplagat has been APSU's top finisher in all five meets this season.
Sophomore Emily Sorrell has led Jacksonville State in five of its six races this season. She placed 67th at her first OVC Championship a year ago.
Freshman Rebekah Wynn will look to pace the Tennessee State team after leading the Tigerbelles in each of its first four races this season.
