Both the men’s and women’s cross country teams finished in the top 10 this weekend at the Memphis Twilight Invitational.

The men finished fourth of 42 total teams and the women finished ninth of 41 teams.

Going into the race, the Panthers expected the course to be fast. And after they got past the first mile, it was.

But sophomore Erin O’Grady said the first mile was a mess.

“The gun went off and there was like, 300-something girls all packed and sprinting the first 150 meter at the start,” O’Grady said. “After that first 150 or so the course condensed into an S turn, and people were just at a dead stop waiting for their turn to go around the curve.”

Freshman Caitlin Napoleoni said she fell during that first part of the race because it was hard to see with all the runners and the massive amount of dust that filled the air.

“I could have had my eyes closed and it would have been just the same,” freshman Brad LaRocque said. “There was dirt and dust flying everywhere, I couldn’t see in front of me, beside me, nothing.”

O’Grady said it looked completely chaotic during the first mile with people tripping over cones and each other but after the first mile things began to settle in and Eastern kept their packs together.

LaRocque, who was the first Panther to finish with a time of 25 minutes, and 30.27 seconds, said he felt really good at the third mile and decided to split off from the pack.

“Things had already settled in and people had spread out a little so I just started hammering it and catching people one by one,” LaRocque said.

LaRocque placed 27th overall and David Holm came in next at 41st place with a time of 25:53.44.

Derek Ericson (51st), Harrison Bueno (61st) and Mario Castrejon (72nd) were the last three Panthers to score in the event.

O’Grady said the women did a nice job of keeping their pack together and running as a team.

O’Grady and Amy LeJeune finished 29th and 30th overall with times of 19:04.11 and 19:05.49, respectively.

Napoleoni and Katie O’Brien came in next in the 42nd and 45th spot overall.

“Doing as well as we did in such a huge meet really helped build not only my confidence, but I think it helped the teams confidence too,” LaRocque said.