Eastern women placed 22nd overall on Saturday at the Midwest Regional Championships, running in their second 6K of the year.

“We didn’t feel like our effort matched our place,” freshman Erin O’Grady said. ” A lot of the teams we were expecting to beat didn’t bring full teams so it made our overall score look lousy.”

Nicole Flounders was the first Panther to cross the finish line with a time of 23 minutes, 24.37 seconds.

Amy LeJeune and Erin O’Grady came in next at 114th and 118th with times of 23:42.97 and 23:46.19.

Junior Jillian Blondell finished in 124th and said she was glad that she finished close to Amy Lejeune and Erin O’Grady.

“I was closer to Amy and Erin than I usually am and us top four girls finished close together,” Blondell said. “If we just would have finished higher up we could have done really good for our team score because we weren’t so spread out.”

The men did not score as a team but junior Brad Butler placed 59th overall with a time of 32:39.84.

Senior Brad Runnion finished next with a time of 34:46.39 and freshman Eric Pedersen finished next with a time of 35:10.89.

Junior Jake Larson was the last Panther to finish with a time of 36:18.94.

One problem the Panthers had on Saturday was the course and not being able to run the course ahead of time.

On the ride up to Minneapolis the vans were stuck on the side of the freeway for around two and a half hours because of snow in Osseo, Wis.

Since the drive took longer than they expected they did not get to prerace at the regional course because it was too late.

“It was like I was playing follow the leader in the race,” O’Grady said. “I didn’t know where to go or when to surge. I felt like a blind bat and it really showed me of seeing the course ahead of time.”

The Panthers also struggled with the difficult rolling hills all over the course.

“The hills were way worse than we expected,” junior Brad Butler said. “It was hard to keep a steady pace because none of it was really flat or even at all.”

The difference in distance was another thing that Eastern had to overcome.

Pedersen hadn’t run a 10K before and said he could feel the difference.

“It was a lot harder,’ Pedersen said.” Thirty-five minutes is such a long time. Once you start hurting you are just counting down the miles until it is over. It was tough but I was glad I got the opportunity. I am glad coach brought me.”

Blondell said she wasn’t really affected by the change in distance.

“When we ran the 6K at Bradley I knew when I had hit the 5K and it was terrible,” Blondell said. “Here I didn’t even realize I had already passed the 5K mark until someone yelled 400 meters left. I couldn’t believe it.”

The top finishers in both the men and women’s races were from Iowa.

Diane Nukuri won the women’s race with a time of 20:34.72 and Micah Vandenend won the men’s with a time of 30:40.14.