Freshman Gena Nance is running on her home course for the fifth year in a row, but this time she is running in a different uniform.

Nance, a Charleston High School graduate, said she really feels like she knows the course very well.

While it is exciting and somewhat of an advantage to host a cross country meet, the Panthers aren’t putting too much weight into the outcome of their meet this weekend, head coach Geoff Masanet said.

The Panthers host the Panther Open, their only home meet of the season. The race begins at 5 tonight.

Masanet said he is interested in seeing how the team does, but it will not be an indicator of their talent.

In collegiate cross country the majority of the season is spent building for the conference championships; meaning that how a team does in a regular season meet does not affect their chance of advancing into the conference championship and beyond.

Because the meets before the Ohio Valley Conference are not of huge importance, many teams, like the Panthers, will choose to sit out runners early in order for them to be healthy and ready by the end of the season.

Not only is Masanet going to hold out some of the men, but three men will also be running unattached this weekend and five of the twelve girls will be sitting out.

Senior Brad Butler, along with freshmen Nick Kuczwara and Harrison Bueno, will be the three unattached runners for Eastern and Masanet said all would most likely finish in the top eight for the Panthers if they were scoring.

He said he is not worried about not running all of his team because he knows that Southern Illinois-Carbondale and Southeast Missouri, two of the top teams coming to the meet, will most likely be sitting some people out as well.

Masanet said with a bunch of teams not running all their runners, it makes for some closer competition, but it also makes it a little unpredictable as to where teams will finish.

“So with not everyone running, it sort of waters it down a little bit. But since a lot of the teams are doing it, we are a little more even keel,” Masanet said.

Masanet said he is interested in seeing how all the “watered down” teams match up with each other and especially how his team matches up.

Based on last week’s performance at the alumni meet, Masanet said while there will still be runners sitting out, some that he originally planned on holding will compete on Friday.

Junior Jeremy Wheeler and freshman Brad LaRocque are two of the guys who Masanet has decided to let race in the Panther Open instead of holding them for the Southern Illinois Invitational at Carbondale, next weekend.

Wheeler and LaRocque finished seventh and eighth overall in the alumni meet but second and third, not counting alumni and unattached runners.

“I felt like that top pack of guys did a nice job of running with each other and I want to see that happen again this week and then maybe sit them out next week,” Masanet said.

Senior Jake Larson said Eastern is going to be missing some key guys but being on their home course and coming off a lighter week of practice he thinks they should still do well.

“I have high expectations for this meet because a lot of us should feel more fresh after this week of training that has been sort of backed off,” Larson said. “Especially with the fact that we know the course better than the other teams, we should be able to be very competitive with all the teams that are coming here.”